Behind Bars
by MeyRevived2
Summary: AU.'Sharonza Heights' Prison is where the Seals are wardens and the inmates are the DoE. Threads of romance are knotted an escape plan is knotted at the same time.NEW CHAPTERS NOW
1. Part 1

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. the Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here.

**Author's thanks: **to my beta, Kitsunia.

**Author's notes: **the ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters that, in X, are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

* * *

**Part 1**

"Uh…I….don't know about this…." Sergeant Arisugawa Sorata mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck vigorously.

He was looking at the new member of his team, Private Shiro Kamui, who stood at the best attention he could give. His back was so straight it must have hurt him to keep it up for long. His arm was so high in its salute it must have been drained of blood a long time ago. His palm was so straight at the tip of his right brow Sorata wondered if it could cut like a knife.

But, as obedient and devoted to his duty as Private Shiro seemed, he was still pretty much the one person Sorata could rate as 'definitely not tough enough for this job'….after lieutenant Sumeragi that is.

Private Shiro was very lean, very thin and too girlish in appearance to be good around the prisoners of this ward.

But, Sorata guessed, their chief of staff knows what he's doing and who was he to say a word against the old man?

He reached out to the rigid boyish man and ruffled his hair "Welcome to Sharonza Heights prison! I'm sergeant Arisugawa Sorata," he burst out, dealing a heavy blow to his own chest. "But you can call me Sora, please call me Sora, and don't salute me at all, okay?"

Private Shiro stared at the bigger man for a few bewildered moments before easing out of attention. He was soon grabbed by the shoulder and practically dragged down the corridor of 3rd Ward Staff offices.

The large unit, pressed against 3rd Ward by it's extra thick walls, contained a large dining room, a long sleeping hall (where wardens caught by the night after a long shift could rest if they decided they're too tired to drive home), and the ward's commander's office.

The thick walls opened to three huge windows, overlooking 3rd Ward's strolling court, cells unit and dining hall. As he walked past the immense transoms Kamui had to wonder if these served more to constantly remind the wardens of the prisoner's presence and of their duty then as regular windows. The only slightly cheerful view possible was offered from the window opened to the strolling court and you could get that after staring out far, far away past the prison's multiple fences and walls, past the high watch towers and all the away to the rural countryside at the far end of one of man's biggest fortresses. Kamui would have tried to enjoy that far off view if he wasn't grabbed across the shoulder so powerfully by this over-cheerful man, his new comrade.

Kamui couldn't be more surprised then he was when he laid eyes on their captain, the ward's commander.

He expected a big tough guy with short-cropped hair and an angry scowl, big muscles and a sweaty shirt. But the man who called him into the office with the kindest voice Kamui ever heard from a man was anything but that.

Captain Aoki Seiichiro was tall, somewhat flabby (but not overweight in any way, no beer belly or doughnut-made love handles of any sort) with big awkward, out of fashion glasses and a well combed light brown hair parted in the middle behind some few loose strands that fell curling to the sides of his forehead. He beamed the warmest, kindest, sweetest, almost apologetic smile at Kamui who simply couldn't salute someone so….dorky….

"Oh please, don't salute me dear boy." Captain Aoki waved his palms merrily as soon as he let go of Kamui's palm from a vigorous handshake. "You've already proved yourself as a one with good stand-to-attention abilities for Sergeant Sora."

Kamui had to blink at that, speechless.

"I saw you on my security camera" Captain Aoki explained, the silly/sweet smile never leaving his face, gesturing to a small monitor on his desk "and yes we have those everywhere we could possibly have them" he carried on, as if reading Kamui's mind about the location of security devices.

His office was a small cramped space filled with what can only be called as 'mess'. Papers cluttered around on his table in an awful chaos, old coffee and tea mugs rotted away here and there across the office. The walls were dyed dark green from the bottom to mid-wall, making the tiny messy office seem stifling.

"Please, sit down, would you like some tea?"

"Uh….y….yeah…I mean, yes sir!" Kamui almost bolted out of his seat. He straightened his sitting position, stretching at his uniform shirt to make it look like it wasn't three sizes too big on him and maybe create the effect that he didn't look like a kid in a big man's costume.

"Ha ha! No need to be so formal now private Shiro, please. You'll find that ranks, formalities, even honorifics are pretty much melted into one unimportant mass and left aside. I started this policy ever since I took over this ward some three years ago, and I preach it to anyone who walks in, even guests! Now, what flavor do you want? I have….vanilla….green tea….Ceylon….and earl grey….what's this? Oh, some ginseng from dear Lieutenant Sumeragi."

"You're still using ranks sir…." Kamui had to note him. Watching his new commander flapping through tea bags in what must be his office's private coffee corner made him uneasy. He wasn't used to rules being turned so upside down in this strict environment.

Captain Aoki raised his eyes heavenwards as if seeking an answer there before he returned them, glittering and merry, back to Kamui "That's right…we might use the ranks but only _verbally_!"

Kamui missed the idea's meaning.

"We _say _'Sergeant, Lieutenant, Private, est.' but we don't _act _that way! Except when the Old Man comes over for inspection that is." Captain Aoki's face darkened.

Kamui began moving uncomfortably on his seat. He didn't like people dropping the Old Man's name too often around him. His and the Old Man's last meeting was far too uncomfortable for Kamui to think about.

"So what flavor is it Private Shiro-kun? You better hurry up and make your mind because the water in the kettle might get cold."

"Uh…Ceylon I guess…."

"Very well, hot or lukewarm?"

"Steaming"

"How much sugar?"

"Six"

"….."

"I like sweetness," Kamui mumbled; slightly embarrassed at the surprised glance Captain Aoki shot at him.

"Very well, it's your cup of tea! I only wonder how you manage to keep your gir…youthful figure with so much sugar in your tea."

"Add some milk to my tea." Kamui allowed himself to be unmannerly after that last half-remark about his appearance.

"Very well, here you go! Steaming and sweet!" His commander handed him the large mug. Kamui cringed at the sight of the big happy cow doodle on the mug's side.

"My daughter picked that one out, picked the whole set in fact. She gave it to me for my last birthday, it's a whole set of farm animals mugs"

"How old is she?"

Captain Aoki almost spilled his own cup of lukewarm, one sugar, and no milk earl grey as he suddenly jerked to a framed picture right by his computer screen and flipped it for Kamui to see.

It was a picture of a small woman in her late twenties holding a girl of about three or four. Both seemed sickeningly happy and both held their hands out to greet the picture taker with their endless love.

Kamui cringed at that too. He swallowed a large gulp of scorching tea to ease his nausea and plastered a polite fake smile on his face "Your daughter looks adorable."

'You look almost her age' Captain Aoki wanted to answer but held it back. Instead he shuffled the mess on his desk looking for Kamui's personal file.

Kamui handed him the dark blue elastic folder held in his hand all along.

"Ah! Thank you so much, I'm so messy sometimes!" The kind Captain began flipping through the various pages in the folder, darting his eyes from the papers to the youth before him.

Kamui noted, with some amount of awkwardness (or was it disappointment?), that when it came to business his new commander's whole being turned from kind-slightly-silly-and-messy to the sharp, clever, and all observing commander someone in his rank and position should be.

……….and it all came crushing down the moment someone stormed into the office, flipping some pages off the messy desk with the sheer power of his entrance.

Surprised at the sudden violent gust of wind, Kamui spun around to look at the entering man.

Lieutenant Sumeragi Subaru was a tall, dark looking, slightly hunched and very thin man. Besides his external features Kamui could make nothing else out of him; he was simply unreadable.

His large green eyes were slightly swollen and reddened with the common lack of sleep infecting most of the wardens at 3rd Ward and along with his pale skin and thinness he appeared sickly. But the eyes were shut down, turned off, completely unreadable; he seemed a man powered only by duty and not by soul.

"Ah….Lt. Sumeragi….why must you storm in so violently," the higher ranking officer whimpered from under his desk where he struggled to collect all his ruffled papers on his hands and knees.

Lt. Sumeragi said not a word in response but a hushed mumble of an apology.

"I finished the new inmates welcoming party," he grumbled (or was it mumbled? Kamui couldn't tell the difference with the man's low voice)

Cp. Aoki climbed back to his chair, sorting out the escaping papers while scrutinizing the two wardens before him. Kamui was looking very confused at the Lt.'s words.

"'Welcoming party' is a slang we use for new inmate's first roll call after imprisonment process. We've had three new inmates today, you'll probably see them later on in your shift…my, you arrived early didn't you," he mumbled, looking at his wristwatch baffled.

Kamui arrived at 07:00AM sharp, as punctual as only he can be. "Is it a bad thing?"

"God heavens no! We need tidy, punctual people like you here…it's just that most new wardens, and those who just arrived out of training especially, well….they're more like 'let's go out and have fun before we get locked up' you see?"

Kamui understood and nodded. He didn't feel like he's going to be locked up like the rest of the _prisoners_ here though, he felt like he was going to be locked up in a mad house's ward.

Sergeant Sorata poked his head into the office "Ne, Lt. Sumeragi, I need to talk to you about something for a minute"

The seemingly lifeless man nodded and walked out of the office with his mug of tea empty (he was about to prepare it when Sorata came in).

"Lt. Sumeragi…." Cp. Aoki chirped merrily.

The empty emerald eyes turned to their chief.

"Finish making your tea. I'm sure Sgt. Sora can wait until that."

"Well…." Sora was, against every fiber in his every cheerful and ever lightheaded being, very much anxious yet powerless against his commander's words.

Cp. Aoki calmed him with a fatherly slow nod.

Lt. grabbed his now brewed cup of tea and placed a cigarette in his lips as he walked towards the door and the waiting Arisugawa.

"In the smoking corner Lt. Subaru!" Cp. Aoki called after him, his voice pleading like no commander Kamui ever heard.

All this time Kamui sat on his chair trying to look a lot smaller then he is so he could blend in or at least be ignored of. He didn't like too many people around him making a lot of noise; one on one meeting in calm and silence was his favorite socializing.

"Now, where were we?" The worrying sharpness returned to the eyes behind Cp. Aoki's large glasses. "Ah yes, so, tell me a little about yourself Pr. Shiro"

Kamui cringed in his chair even more, doing his last attempt to shrink beyond seeing.

* * *

"HELLOOOOOOOOOO! You're the new girl aren't you?"

Pr. Kishuu Arashi's body decided that freeze (other then flee or fight as she thought she would) was the best method to handle the attack.

A lively young woman in her mid twenties with short raven black hair and big happy green eyes practically leaped at her from her chair in 6th Ward's staff cafeteria, her arms spread sideways, and her steps more like skips.

"Y…Yes ma'am" Arashi stretched to attention as best she could the moment she noticed the silver ranks on the young woman's shoulders.

"Oh no need for that honey! What's you're name?"

"Pr. Kishuu Arashi ma'am" something felt terribly _wrong _as she eased out of attention. Unlike Kamui, Arashi lived all her life caught in a tight web of rules and morals so whenever someone told her to loosen up she'd become frightened and paranoid.

"Cool! I'm Lt. Sumeragi Hokuto, but you can call me Hokuto-chan!"

Call a superior by their first name and with such an honorific! Arashi felt ice cold chills spilling down her spine.

"Oh please call me Hokuto-chan…please…" The officer drew herself as close as she could to her new recruit, putting on a puppyish pout.

Arashi stayed frozen on her spot even when the other woman neared as inches from her face. She wanted to run away from this ward, from this prison, from this country but her body was still frozen.

"Say you'll call me Hokuto-chan" the officer insisted, pouting dramatically.

"F…fine…Lt. Hokuto-ch….chan…" She had to pluck the words out of her mouth and as soon as they were out they stung, as if she hissed words of blasphemy.

"Lovely!" Lt. Hokuto threw her arms in the air merrily. "Well then," she said as soon as she calmed down a little, "I see you just arrived and since I have to go and throw a welcoming party for our new inmates I'll just show you to the commander's office and off I'll go! Quickly, quickly!"

An immense force of nature suddenly gushed at Arashi's back, pushing her towards a neat little office at the end of the long corridor that was 6th Ward staff rooms.

Just like 3rd Ward's staff quarters, 6th Ward's had the same build, same windows, same basic structure (accept the women's lavatories and shower rooms were built a little larger then the men's). There were small differences, like the lighter shade of green on the walls of 6th Ward, the big cork pin up boards on the walls with pictures of children and the toddler's various kindergarten-drawing masterpieces.

The cafeteria's kitchen had more (and more various) cookies, tea bags and cleaner cutlery then in the 3rd Ward.

The smell of nail varnish hung in the long sleeping room. On the walls of that room hung various posters of various strapping men in various levels of nakedness. As she passed the room by, Arashi couldn't help note some very explicit yaoi posters hung on the walls above several beds.

She was ushered into an office Arashi couldn't describe as anything but 'lovely'.

Cp. Kasumi Karen had long bright lilac curtains with flower patterns at their rims hung on the big ordinary window. She painted the room in the brightest, most cheerful yet not too powerful baby blue, pierced here and there only by pictures from various events in 6th Ward (a trip to some luxurious onsen, a group pictures in yukatas and old paper lanterns from a summer festival, a group picture under a big cherry tree with a sign '6th Ward's looking at the petals in spring' or something like that held by the women, a picture from a costume party, a picture from some anime fans gathering est.).

The Captain's desk was neat and clean, random piles of messy papers clotting here and there just to give the desk a more human look. Colorful stickers, hologram stickers, and cute little memo holders covered her computer.

Two plushies sat regally atop her computer screen; a simple white bunny with a flower in his hand, and a round lump with long rabbit like ears, kitzune eyes and a large pink circle on it's forehead amidst his white fur.

All and all this office seemed like the most homely, welcoming and warm place Arashi ever stepped into and wasn't her own house.

Cp. Kasumi was a beautiful woman with flaming red hair curling down to her shoulder most unruly and wild. Her big warm eyes sparkled with wisdom and love as she laid eyes on her new recruit. She wore the smallest size of uniform as she could and had two extra buttons open in her shirt, revealing the very edge of a lacy white bra. It kind of made Arashi wonder what she's trying to prove or say in this sea of women.

The woman gestured for her to sit down on the awfully comfortable office chair (3rd Ward didn't gather money amongst themselves to buy their commander such furniture and so unlike Arashi, Kamui had to sit on the usual rigid metal pipe chair)

"Welcome darling." Cp. Kasumi beamed at her. "Would you like to drink something? Hokuto-chan, welcoming party…."

Lt. Hokuto, who still hung at Arashi's side, sprung back to life, emitted a strange sounding "eep!" and vanished out of the office. Cp. Kasumi laughed the most charming silver bell laughter Arashi ever heard.

"She's so messy, Hokuto-chan is, it's very near destruction often but she's a good officer and so I try to swipe whatever mistake she makes under the carpet." She winked at Arashi, making the younger woman recognize some of the features in her beautiful make up.

"Would you like a cup of tea dear?"

"Y-yes, no please ma'am don't get up, I'll make my cup. May I make yours as well?" It was as if she was under a spell! All Arashi wanted from the moment she lay eyes of her captain was to make the woman happy and pleased with her, to be a good warden for her.

"You're a dear. I'd like some rose and vanilla, they're the awful magenta colored tea bags above the sugar jar."

At first Arashi wondered why was in necessary to be so specific of the color of the tea bag. It lasted until she took out the large wooden box on the shelf above the sugar jar and opened it. There were so many tea bags in so many colors it took Arashi a few moments to recover her shock.

"I found this huge box when I was in London the last vacation I had and I just _had_ to bring it over here for the girls to enjoy. There's another box like that in the dining room, a bigger one though."

Arashi's head swam as she turned frightened eyes to her new commander "B…bigger ma'am?" her arms already noted her that holding the big box was beginning to take it's toll.

"Yes! A real treasure chest of three shelves and a little cap space form more tea bags," Cp. Kasumi chirped.

Arashi whipped her head back to the tea box and pulled out an awful magenta colored bag reading "Rose and Vanilla", yanked it out of it's paper wrapping and placed it inside a mug she chose for her commander.

She chose it because there was a picture of a happy group of female wardens on it with "To our beloved commander, with love from the November 2001 retiring girls" printing and she thought this might be her commander's cup.

Choosing the mug was problematic because _every_ mug in the Captain's rake was in the same spirit; always happy and cheerful, always blessing Cp. Kasumi for her sweetness, her kindness, her lovability, wishing her well, wishing her a happy birthday, you name it! She had about 15 mugs like that on the rake. It made Arashi uncomfortable to choose a mug for herself.

"I'd start with mint and lemon for you darling, it's the yellowish-turquoise bag right by the bright beige bags." Arashi obeyed, spilling the hot water onto the two mugs.

"I'll take two sweet and lows." She obeyed again, mixing the reddening water in her commander's mug until the two round sweetening tablets finished bubbling and melted completely.

She turned around and, lecturing herself inwardly to not dare mess up and spill some of Cp. Kasumi's tea, she handed one awfully pinkish-red mug to her commander and sat down cradling her yellowish mug.

"The first thing I'd like to tell you, and this I tell every girl who walks in here, is this: ranks and age don't matter here and I mean it! I don't want you to call me 'commander' or 'ma'am' or 'miss' or anything! My name is Karen. If it'll make you feel a little more comfortable then you can call me Karen-san but nothing more, please.

"Now, you've already met with my second in command, the darling Lt. Hokuto-chan. If you ever need a hug and a shoulder to cry on, and I'm not around, you can turn to her. Also if you need your nails done or your eyebrows plucked into better shape she's your girl, oh yes!" She ran her forefinger along her elegant burning red eyebrows thoughtfully.

Arashi stared at her mindlessly.

"You think I'm kidding? I'm not. Oh honey, this is not a big tough female warden's den between these walls. You can be as tough and formal outside, in the ward itself but in here? Here we're having a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year pajama party! Please, feel at home."

Arashi's fear of life without rules and structure returned, numbing her brain and freezing her tongue. All she could say in return was "mnn" and sip her (most delicious) tea.

"That's great!" Karen-san clapped her hands merrily. She had a charming two ring set on her right hand, with two big bright blue opals on each gold band. On her left hand was a complex yet elegant and good tasted set of bracelet and ring connected by a delicate chain. The metal was gold and, once again, beads of opal and shaped gold scattered on the jewel.

Arashi suddenly became transfixed with them.

"Are you looking at these?" Cp. Karen-san flipped her hands to look at her own jewels. "They're from my lovers. I keep a few, here and there." She placed her right palm elegantly on her chin as she looked out through the window thoughtfully.

"That's very nice of them ….I mean, the jewels are lovely, you're very lucky to have them…I mean, you're very lucky that they chose you….I mean…." If she could bury herself in the ground and never rise back to the surface, Arashi would do it right now.

But Karen-san merely beamed at her and laughed lightly. "Yes I'm very lucky I'm able to keep hold of them, you're right because they could have been captured by any other woman. Oh, do calm down dear, you didn't offend me at all," she chirped like a gossiping high school girl.

She reached out across the table, gesturing Arashi to hand her the dark blue plastic folder containing her personal data from police academy. As she received it she opened a special folder for Arashi on her computer. All along Arashi's first interview she was typing personal data from the files and from Arashi's mouth onto the computer, her long delicate fingers gliding magically over the keyboard.

Despite the uncomfortably loose and laidback air here, despite the need to forget about ranks and become a giggling pajama party girl inside these thick walls, Arashi couldn't make herself say that this was going to be bad because Karen-san was here and no one in the world could be around Karen-san for three seconds and not feel happy and calm.

"So, Arashi-chan, tell me a little about yourself." Her new commander and goddess smiled at her.

* * *

Three new inmates joined 3rd Ward on the day in which Pr. Kamui joined its staff.

They were Kigai Yutu, Shiyu Kusanagi and Monou Fuma.

Kigai Yutu and Shiyu Kusanagi came from the same place, yanked from the same scene of crime while Monou Fuma was brought over after a long pursuit and trial.

Kigai Yutu came here to serve ten years (up for parole in 8) for acting as a pimp in a bordello who specialized in delivering fresh young girls to it's costumers. Basically he was a pimp who dealt for pedophiles. He and his coworker scanned the streets of Osaka County's various cities in search of beautiful young girls and offered those adventures and big bucks in the big city of Tokyo.

He walked through the imprisoning stages with an air of calm and relaxation, as if he was registering into a new town and not into one of Japan's top security prisons.

Shiyu Kusanagi was here to serve five years (up for parole in 3) for visiting the bordello regularly. Actually he was only there once, for his first visit of a place such as that, but it was an unlucky time that he chose to come in. The police made him into a lying pervert and condemned him for what he's done.

His only comfort was that he was not caught and sentenced by his Self Defense force's MPs or he'd do time in a military prison which was, to say the least, a lot less luxurious then this prison.

Unlike his two other 'delivery' men he was by far the most nervous, most miserable and most regret-filled man. He was on the verge of tears all the time, from the moment the police raided the bordello to the moment he walked into his lonely prison cell.

Monou Fuma was here to serve 30 years (up for parole in 15) for the gathering charges of assault, burglary, vandalism, sabotage, drug dealing, random pimping and an attempted bombing of a high school in Okinawa.

He walked through the imprisoning stages with high spirits of scorn and carelessness, shooting evil glares and sexually harassing looks at both male and female wardens in his path.

This was not his first time in prison, in fact it was his fifth since he was at an age to be imprisoned, so he was pretty much used to it all. The moment he walked into his cell he began calculating its weak spots should he attempt escape.

The three men were homed in three cells one by the other, their bulletproof glass walls giving each of them zero privacy.

Each cell contained a bed, a small desk a small sink and a toilet seat with curtains allowing them to hide themselves only from their neighbors but not from their wardens, who's lookout spot was stationed before the four storied wall of cells.

Kusanagi hurried to curl on his bed and cry, hiding his tears as best he could.

Yutu took his time to register his room before he wondered out of it in search for the ward's library.

Fuma dropped on the bed and fell into a long lazy slumber. Withdrawal from the various drugs he used to take back in the free world forced him to try and be unconscious a lot, unaware of pain and needs as much as he could.

* * *

Two new inmates joined 6th Ward on the day that Pr. Arashi joined its pajama party of a staff.

They were Kazahaya Kanoe and Yatoji Satsuki.

Kazahaya Kanoe was there to serve a sentence of ten years (up for parole in 8) for the same charges as Kigai Yutu.

She was his co-worker and the actual manager and collector of their little army of young girls. If Japan's justice system weren't so bent on blaming the man rather then the woman for this horrible crime, Kanoe would have served more; she was basically the brain and claws behind each of the bordello's gathering operations. She would be the bigger sister and the mother for these girls, turning to become their warden as well might they threat to escape or tell the police about it.

She was horribly disheveled when she walked into the prison, shocked at the fact that her brilliant planning had a hole in it big enough to allow this catastrophe to happen.

What will become of her in the prison, she did not know and dreaded to think. But whatever her emotions were she kept them well hidden under an iron mask of calmness and cool. She walked around as proudly as she could, as dignified as she could after a night of tossing and turning ruffling her hair.

Yatoji Satsuki was there to serve a sentence of 25 years (up for parole in 20) for her various computerized bank robberies; her constant escapes and virus poisoning of the police computers whenever they attempted to arrest her.

At her high time she plagued and emptied the computerized vaults of up to fifty four different bank branches, often making whole companies of them collapse within a night's time. She also managed to sabotage the police's computers so bad that three counties were thrown back to paper and pen level for long months before the systems were thoroughly cleaned.

She was a frozen ice doll, emotional and careless, from the moment she was finally arrested, through her trial and all the way up to her prison cell.

She was indeed emotionless besides the constant self-consuming regret that she did not do her _best_ to avoid arrest. She could have sabotaged the traffic light system on the way to her home and make such a big pile up of police cruisers she'd be able to see it from her bedroom window. But she did not; she still had some glimmering faith and love for humans to kill them so selfishly. She had that glimmer _at the time_. By the time the police finished venting its anger at her, by the time her extremely media-covered trial ended she was perhaps the biggest misanthrope to ever walk the face of the earth.

Kanoe walked into her cell and immediately ran to the mirror above her sink (the 6th Ward advantage for prisoners above the 3rd Ward's, other then that the cells were exactly alike) to fix her hair and put on her make up.

Then she took a deep breath, fought back tears of panic, and strolled out to become familiar with other the girls in her ward.

Satsuki scanned her room, scanned the awfully populated ward outside (only 20 other prisoners, but even that was too much for her), and decided to stay indoors.

Boredom came to Satsuki faster then to any other human on the planet and it often drove her insane (it drove her to her crimes) so the only way she could fight it was to shut down completely. She snuggled into her bed and forced a deep sleep upon herself to shut off the human world outside.

* * *

There was another ward in Sharonza Heights: the high security isolation ward.

It was a huge hall with long arches running along the ceiling, giving the modern times underground ward a somewhat medieval-torture-prison look.

It contained one tiny cell of thick metal walls with one bulletproof glass wall, where prisoners who committed a crime within the prison walls could be locked up as punishment. This cell, for now, was vacant.

The other was a huge apartment sized cell made of bulletproof glass with metal floor and ceiling where the prison's most dangerous prisoners were held.

Today, and for the next 75 years (up for parole in 68 years from now), it was the home of Sakurazuka Seishiro who served two lifetimes for the death of some twenty men and women (and probably more if only the police could find their remains in the deep hole he dug under his huge cherry tree in his back garden).

He was a sorcerer, using yin yang magic to hunt down and kill his victims, then bury them deep under his immense cherry tree. He used magic to escape the police for some twenty years now and was thought of as the most dangerous prisoner in all of Japan's history. He was offered to plead insane but he resigned, claiming to do his every act of murder in clear mind.

He was a complete gentleman to his wardens and soon his good behavior made security around him slacken and slim until it was the job of only one warden on an 8 hour shift, each connecting to form security around the clock.

The prison's psychologist who, in the long nine years of his imprisonment so far, managed to make absolutely zero effect on Seishiro or squeeze out any information as for where he learnt his magic and why he killed so many people regularly visited Seishiro.

His apartment of a cell had no sharp objects of any kind (might he extract blood from himself and use it for casting a spell as he did the 15th time the police tried to capture him), no means of starting a fire and contained a simple, but relatively luxurious single bed, single sofa, small coffee table, a partially hidden shower and lavatory. There was another room with some gym equipment which Seishiro won with good behavior and repetitive promising that he would never hurl it at the walls of his cell and try to break them.

Seishiro was a prince locked in a high tower suite, roaming it regally as only he could.

He was known to either flirt with the wardens until they claimed they must be moved out of the prison might they do something stupid, or completely ignored his watchers. He never played mind games with anyone to try and break their spirit or abuse them verbally though he was known to throw a few nasty remarks at wardens who treated him with scorn or disgust.

"When you enter a shift with Sakurazuka you have to bear in mind that he is something completely different then _anything_ you've ever known. Treat him with respect and he will treat you with respect" are the first words every warden heard in briefing before each shift down at the basement.

Wardens would sit in a small cubicle above a large window allowing fresh air into the room through four layers of bars (the other floors had three layers, two or even one on their windows) with a small desk to put your feet up on and a coffee machine.

Lt. Sumeragi Subaru never walked down to the basement. It was about to change, that's what Sgt. Sora yanked him out of Cp. Aoki's office for.

"Lt. Segawa came down with an awful flue and we ran out of officers to watch the guy you know?" Sora tried not to sound to apologetic. Often he wondered if he should bother adding emotions to his voice at all when speaking to Lt. Sumeragi, the man was so cold and vacant.

"I see, that's fine. My shift starts now?"

"Yeah, Lt. Segawa tried to go down to the basement but he fainted from the fever, you know how hardworking he is, he didn't succumb to the disease until it came and grabbed him real hard!"

"I see."

"So, it should be real easy and you can smoke there you know."

That _did_ cheer Lt. Sumeragi up after he began thinking of how dreadful it would be to get stuck for 8 hours in a rank basement with some psycho who thinks he's something out of D&D.

"Very well. Goodbye then Sgt," he said before he walked down the steps to the basement.

That day will be remembered as the day in which the prison, its prisoners, and wardens had a change of destiny.

(tbc)


	2. Part 2

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. the Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here. Pochi Project was something I saw on Oz.

**Author's notes: **the ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters who in X are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

**Author's Thanks:_ To my beta! Kitsunia!_** Othersgo toLady-Willowish, Amy Levi, WhiteSakura (haven't heard from you in a while, you okay luv?), Tekoo (daaaaaarliiiiiiing!), Kuroshira, Sad, grubble, Tanuki-Dono (many thanks for the compliments but at the moment I should put all my effort into passing the university entrance exam XD) the anon reviewers from Adultfanfiction and Clampesque bord.

* * *

**Part 2**

There was a long fence stretching between the wardens' open-air personal space for the two main parts of the prison: the female prison and male prison.

The open-air personal space, or the 'walking court for _these_ prisoners' as wardens of both wards called it, had a small round square with a few poorly cared for grass and empty dirt patches.

There were miserable flowerbeds for the male prisoner's staff. The female ward's little garden was a heaven of blooming flower-filled bushes (changed with each season so that there will always be flowers around) and a growing little orange tree.

Pr. Arashi let out a gasp of amazement when she stepped into the open-air court the first time.

She just spent her first eight-hour shift patrolling her ward and felt she needed a breath of fresh air. She never expected the wonderful sight before her. There was a quality to the little court; it was so soothing and relaxing Arashi had to smile kindly.

"Ah! She smiles!" The happy chirp of Lt. Hokuto shot through the air, taking Arashi by surprise.

"Indeed she does! And what a wonderful sight it is!" Cp. Karen's delightful voice hovered to Arashi.

The two officers sat on a lovely white classic western bench behind the round square, looking at Arashi from above the rims of their teacups.

"We were just talking about the latest silly project," Lt. Hokuto chirped.

Arashi came to join them, bashfully standing at half attention closer to her commander then to the chirpy second-in-command. "What project ma'am?"

Hokuto pouted. "I told you not to talk so formally, didn't I?" By the end of her sentence her tone contained enough commanding pathos Arashi felt the pinpricks of terror down her spine.

"Hokuto-chan, be gentle with her. She's just finished her first shift." Karen placed a long delicate hand on Hokuto's knee. "How was it dear?" She turned her deep fiery eyes to Arashi.

"It was smooth, I should say. Nothing to take important note of."

Karen threw her head back and laughed into the relatively warm late autumn air. "'Take important note of'? Those are terms used for upcoming prisoner uprisings or an attempted escape… No darling, there are no such things here."

Arashi blinked. "None at all?"

"Well…not in the mundane life, darling." Karen sighed. "You'll find that the day to day routine of, well, _this_ ward at least, is hardly any event worthy of remembering."

"I see…"

"But anyways!" Hokuto almost leaped off the bench with revived spirit. "The new pochi project… I hear the men are going to get the dogs and not us!"

"The 'Pochi Project' as we call it." Karen turned to Arashi, who did not hear what Hokuto was talking about. "Is an attempt to train seeing-eye dogs using our inmates."

"Is that safe!"

"That's what we were debating," Hokuto said, turning her teacup in her hand. "Here, come sit by me. Would you like some tea?"

"Uh..."

She poured her a cup anyway.

"It's delicious!"

"Anything Karen-san brews is delicious," Hokuto chirped, her cup almost spilling on her light blue uniforms as she hopped on her seat a little.

"We were thinking that there are always the risk the dogs will be trained to attack other prisoners." Karen brought the subject of the conversation back to her two companion's minds.

"Or thought things that might cause trouble for the dog's future owner, like stealing purses off of passer-biers or something like that."

"…"

"But that's why they're giving these dogs only to prisoners with a well proved history of good behavior and for the time they'll spend with the dog they'll be moved to an old section of the prison where it will only be them and the dogs." Karen examined the sun playing across her complicated hand jewel.

"Old section of the prison," Hokuto called out.

"Yes. The prison is shaped like an 'L' right?"

Hokuto nodded.

"One arm of the 'L' is the male section. The other is the female section. But the two arms are connected by an old section of the prison with slightly fewer and bigger cells. It used to hold high ranking police officers who went afoul."

"…"

"Why was it closed then?"

"Because the female ward was open and since the old section was only one floor higher then the new female prisoner's open-air court they closed the place down"

"…"

"I see…"

"There's someone looking at us," Arashi suddenly stated, bolting to her feet.

Karen and Hokuto turned to gaze to where Arashi was staring and leaped to their feet as well as soon as they realized who was gazing at them from where.

The two open-air strolling courts for both male and female prisoners were, like the warden's, separated. Unlike the warden's, the prisoners had a tall barbwire wall to block between the two courts.

But there was a hole in the prison's planning. There was a mesh of heavy barbwire separating the male warden's part of the court and the prisoners.

There was a rectangle of heavy barbwire through which Monou Fuma gazed at the female warden's little garden, the forever sly grin spread across his face.

"That's okay," Karen whispered to her comrades. "He's only looking at us, there's no harm in that, is there?"

She suddenly stretched out, bending down to straighten her stocking thus giving Fuma a full view of her neckline "Let him watch," she sniggered, dragging her friends back with her into the ward.

* * *

Karen was mistaken about two of the things:

1. By 'exposing' some of her before Fuma she triggered absolutely zero reaction in him. He was into boys.

2. He could not only _see_ them, he could also _hear_ them. Their words were well registered inside his buzzing brain full of schemes and ideas.

* * *

The second time Arashi walked out to the yard was three days later, after she took a sick leave due to a nasty cold brought to her (so she suspected) by a prisoner she had to escort to the visitor's room and had sneezed non-stop all the way back and forth from the room.

She walked out of the ward to breathe some fresh air after another eight-hour shift.

She didn't know why it was that she got a very bad feeling about this ward.

Maybe it was the no-rules atmosphere that stressed Arashi. Maybe it was simply because these were her first days in the prison and she was still frightened and lacking in courage.

Or maybe something bad _is_ about to happen? After all, her senses were never mistaken…never…

Arashi looked up at the sky. A thin cloud of bright beige covered the sun. It was the very end of autumn and every time the sun was hidden, the cooling air blew harshly, reminding people of the upcoming winter. Arashi was far too close to the cold she suffered to deal with this now.

She was about to turn on her heels and leave when she heard what must be 'chaos' put into sound.

It was a multitude of dog barks and atop them, a high-pitched panicking male voice shouting muffled commands.

Into the male warden's yard came a gush (it can only be described as something liquid) of bright half grown Labrador puppies, eight in number, after which tumbled a male warden who tried to hold them at bay by their leashes.

The warden missed a step on the little staircase leading to the warden's yard and fell face first into the yard. The dogs immediately turned around and, wagging their tails madly, began sniffing him and licking his palms as if to apologize for making him trip.

Arashi found she was laughing uncontrollably, clutching at her stomach and struggling to get a normal breath in.

The sun shone out from the disgusting beige cloud and suddenly the air filled with delicious warmth. The heat caught the flora in the little garden, filling the air with the sweet scent of flowers.

Arashi opened her eyes and saw the warden beyond the fence was staring at her funny. His face was stained with dark brown sand and a few torn strands of grass clung to his face. His eyes must have been stretched to twice their size, so much he stared out at her with awe.

Arashi took a hesitative step back, about to run and hide in her ward.

"Wait," the ward called out to her. "Please don't go babe!"

Spinning around to face him in a rage, Arashi glared fire at him. "Babe?"

She spun around one more time and charged head first into her ward and-

Head first into Lt. Hokuto who managed to catch her before she crushed into her completely. "Ara-chan! What happened? Is it that Monou thing looking at you through the fence again?"

Arashi shook her head violently. "It's some warden from the male section. He's giving me funny looks across the fence!"

For a moment Hokuto was absolutely sure there was some sleazy nasty warden giving Arashi harassing looks. She straightened her uniforms and prepared to charge at the man.

What she saw, still staring out at the yard like a brain dead thing, was Sgt. Sorata surrounded by doggies, staring out at the distance with the most bewildered expression.

Hokuto walked out to him "What's wrong Sora-chan?" She giggled. "You scared her off, what did you do? What happened to your face?"

Sorata stared out at the Arashi-less space for some more before snapping back to his senses and answering Hokuto. "Where did the angel go?"

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOH! Angel she is then?" She scanned the dumbfound Sorata before speaking on. "Very well then! I hereby find you a proper suitor-candidate for our Ara-chan!"

Sorata shook his head violently, making Hokuto chirp about how they even have the same gestures. "Will you help me?" He charged the fence between him and the Lieutenant, clasping the metal wires violently "Will you help me get together with her?"

Winking, Hokuto nodded in silence.

Tears blurred Sorata's view of the woman before him "Thank you," he whimpered "Thank you so much".

"KYAAAA! You're so adorable!" She sent her long slim fingers through the wires and clutched at Sorata's uniform collar and drew him I to place a kiss on his cheek.

"I'm off now," she yelped, running back into her ward.

* * *

"She's so beautiful…She has this looooooong flowing black hair…And the palest, most beautiful skin you've ever seen, totally perfect…And the biggest, most beautifully shaped eyes…I couldn't see their color…" Sorata dropped his head on the table in the male ward's cafeteria, making a heavy bang sound. "Why couldn't I remember her eye color! What kind of future husband am I going to make!"

His conversation buddy was staring forward listlessly; a blank look in his emerald eyes, obviously completely deaf to what Sora tried conveying to him.

"Oi, oi, are you even listening to a word I say!"

"…"

Sorata dropped his head to the table again, trying to use his shift break to get some sleep.

Worries about his commander bothered him enough to suddenly override his beloved Arashi.

Lt. Sumeragi seemed more and more aloof these days. Sure he was standoffish ever since Sorata could remember but these days…these days the Lt. didn't seem to notice anything around him at all!

"Aw man…" He sighed, remembering another annoying fact "I gatta watch over the psycho wizard today, late night shift…damn…"

"I'll replace you if you want," Lt. Sumeragi spoke.

Sorata whipped his head up, hanging huge surprised eyes at his commander "Eh! You spoke! I mean…you will? That would be wonderful! 'Cause I thought I might ask the beautiful angel on a date you know."

"You're welcome."

Sorata shot off his chair; wrapping his strong arms around his frail commander. "I'm forever in your dept!"

The Lt. felt cold and icy under his touch, rigid as a wooden plank.

Sorata wasted no time. He had another shift in his ward before he's free for the evening but before he'll start that he had fifteen more minutes on his break. Fifteen minutes would do to run over to the women's ward and talk to his commander's twin sister.

* * *

"Hello there young man." The tall dark woman on the other side of the bulletproof glass eyed Sorata hungrily. He brushed the sleazy tone and shot a kind smile at her.

"It's oh so refreshing to see such strapping handsome men here," she ran her fingers through her smooth black hair, her eyes never seizing to travel across the Sgt.'s broad chest and the way his uniform shirt clung tightly to his muscular arms.

Speeding up his pace, Sorata headed over to the women's warden section. He really hated going through that corridor where the women look at you like _you're_ the caged animal behind the observing glass window.

"Sgt. S-o-r-a-t-a!" Light arms wrapped around his arm, dragging him to the warden commander's office.

If he felt like the zoo specimen when he went through the corridor, Sorata _really_ felt like one now.

The door to the office snapped shut behind him. The arms now set on his shoulders, pressing him (with surprising strength) to sit down before Cap. Kasumi's desk.

Hokuto remained behind him, her palms slightly squeezing his shoulders in an attempted massage. Cap. Kasumi's fiery eyes burnt a hole through his face with the intensity of their stare.

His captors stayed silent, slowly building the pressure on him.

Sorata broke. "What?"

"That's what we want to ask _you _Sgt. Arisugawa Sorata" Cap. Kasumi spun her teacup slowly. Funny how even such little gestures seem evil when you're trapped.

"W…what…what?" Why was he muttering? Was he sweating? Crazy women…

"_What_ do you want from our little Arashi-nee-chan?" The captain fired off. "Whatare your intentions for her?"

Hokuto bend towards his ear. "Physical or romantic," she hissed.

"_What _are your plans for her," Karen continued.

"You don't plan to hurt her do you?" The hot air on his ear didn't feel so nice now as such things usually do.

"Answer us, immediately!" The captain leaped to her feet, pointing her pen inches from Sorata's nose.

The Sgt. whimpered, looking at the pen as if it was a knife.

It was obvious the captain wouldn't ask him again. The palms on his shoulders tightened as if the squeeze the words out of him.

"I…I don't want to hurt her," he whimpered. "She's so perfect! She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen…"

"Is that all you see her as? Simply a beautiful thing?" Cp. Kasumi's voice took on a deep, almost maniac tone.

"No!" He leaped to his feet, making Hokuto tumble backwards. "I want to marry her! I want to have her by my side for all of eternity! If I need to I'll sacrifice my life for her! I…I…I want to ask her out on a date today if you don't mind…" He plopped back into the chair, inwardly appreciating the soft springy chair these girls have around here.

In an instant the two captors became soft, happy things again. Hokuto crashed into the chair by Sorata's. Cp. Kasumi sat back down to her chair with a delighted smile.

"He wants to marry her Hokuto-chan." Karen winked at her second in command.

"Aw, he wants to have her by his side for eternity."

"He seems to be smitten."

"Yup, smitten to his ears."

Sorata darted his eyes from one woman to another, swearing that he will never, ever, _ever _be able to fully understand women. "So…can I ask her out on a date?"

"Of course you can," Hokuto chirped after getting an approving wink from her commander. "Though I doubt she'll say yes…she's…shy"

"And very frozen, very strict."

"I don't think she'll say yes so quickly."

"No…I'm afraid she might refuse you." Karen tapped her pen on her cheek, looking out the window thoughtfully.

Sorata hung his head in misery "So I don't stand a chance."

He did not receive an answer for some time.

"Tell you what," Hokuto pressed his shoulder again, kindly this time, "I'll drop her a note that you asked our approval for a date and if she'll say yes I'll give you a call. For now I think the best tactic is to slowly but persistently melt her ice with constant courting. I'll give you her home address; send her flowers, lilies I should think."

"Flowers? With my miserable income?"

The women glared at him again.

Feeling the dreaded chills again, Sorata pulled out his little notebook and pen. "Right…lilies… What else?"

"I'll send her to the garden for a little bit of 'her share in keeping our little personal corner in good shape'." Karen smiled (snarled more like it) "and talk to Aoki-san to have you do it too at the same time…a lot."

"I love gardening." It was a blunt lie. Sorata had a way of killing whatever plant he was trying to grow…

"You'll drop me a note whenever you have a free night to go on a date and I'll send her the message." Hokuto joined into the plotting scheme.

"I'll clear our little sister's shifts so she can have a night off that day."

"…You'd do that for me?" He blinked dumbfounded.

"Of course Sora-chan!" Hokuto got up, hooking her arm in his to drag him out. "You leave that to us now, we'll take care of things alright so don't you worry your little head, dear."

She almost threw him into the corridor, waving goodbye before shutting the heavy armored metal door on her ward.

"Thank you!" His call echoed from the thick walls around him, hitting his ears too loudly. Not that he noted such trivial things now.

The tall dark woman was still there, stripping him with her eyes. Now she had a companion; a younger, shorter woman with small frozen eyes behind her glasses' thick lenses.

Usually Sorata's eyes would unwillingly dart to the younger woman's large breasts under the skintight black top. Now days his vision of female beauty was far too much like Pr. Arashi to see Satsuki's features as attractive.

* * *

Of course Pr. Arashi declined his offer. She declined his second offer too. And the third and the fifth and the sixth too!

"You have a night shift at the basement again Sgt."

The fact that Lt. Sumeragi _walked up to someone to talk to them _choked Sorata with amazement for several seconds.

"Y…yes."

"My sister tells me you're using all those free nights to try and get a date with one of her girls."

"That's right, Pr. Kishuu Arashi, a creature sent from up high, beauty on two legs, she's so wonder-"

"I'll replace you so you can have an evening off today."

Sorata blinked, dumbfounded again.

"Gee…thanks… You've been doing that a lot, you know."

The Lt.'s eyes twitched in surprise a little, but quickly regained his composure.

"I'm merely following my sister's orders. She can be quite persuasive when she wants to..."

"Ah, I see." Sorata giggled. The image of Hokuto bouncing around her brother in a constantly nagging way always made him laugh.

Lt. Subaru was about to leave, his back already turned to the Sgt.

"Eh, Sumeragi-san, be careful will you?"

Another surprise shock ran evidently through his commander's body. When he turned his head to look at Sorata over his shoulder his eyes were disturbed, almost frightful. "What do you mean?"

"I mean spending so much time in that basement can do your head in, you know."

"I see. Thank you… Enjoy your date."

"Yeah…right… Like I'll actually _go_ on a date this time…" He banged his head on the table.

* * *

Pr. Arashi felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She didn't need to turn around. Lt. Hokuto brought her head by her ear and whispered into it.

"I was given a message from your courting knight in shining armor."

"I don't need a knight in shining armor, thank you very much," she hissed back, irritably noting the young prisoner she was monitoring turned her head a little, catching their conversation.

"Why?" It was obvious by Hokuto's tone that she was pouting.

"Hokuto-san, please, not here."

"Humph…"

Arashi checked her watch. "That's all your time Yatoji-san, please leave the computer."

Hokuto had to admire the way Arashi spoke to prisoners. Her voice was very low and calm yet undeniable commanding. She behaved as if she couldn't care if a prisoner burst out at her but it was evident that she would take none of it. She made the prisoners obey her with the right mixture of respect and fear.

The young woman darted a cold version of a glare at her warden and got up, reaching to the keyboard quickly.

"Please don't try to touch the keyboard anymore, you're time is up."

The pale palm hovered over the keyboard, shaking with anger. The small eyes behind the lenses twitched in rage only slightly. She turned around and walked out of the library back to her cell.

Arashi and Hokuto followed her, stopping at the main hall surrounded by prison cells.

"Can we talk now?" Hokuto was bouncing on her feet a little. How could a commander do that? And in front of the prisoners of all places!

Arashi sighed. "Is it another date offer?"

Hokuto nodded, winking merrily.

"My answer remains the same."

"Awwww…Why Ara-chan? Why? He's a nice guy; he just wants to take you out on one miserable date. One date. Why not, nee-chan?"

Arashi looked away, pretending to track Kanoe as she walked out to the strolling court. She took real note of it when she observed Kanoe had put on makeup and was straightening her horribly tight jacket. Was she going out to knock the sun in love? Maybe she was trying to charm the birds off the prison wall's barbwires…

"Aaaaara-chan…"

Oh God, she can't stand this anymore. She was wondering if your commanders pressing you to go on a date with someone could be regarded as sexual harassment.

She was so tired of it. Always fearing to go out to their little garden might Sorata be there (and he _was_ most of the time, waiting for her like a loyal puppy), fearing every time Lt. Hokuto neared her with that cunning grin on her face, fearing every private conversation with Cap. Kasumi might she start pressing the subject of Sorata in the conversation's end (and she _always_ did!). If she'll go out on a date with that big idiot, will they let go of her?

"Fine," she sighed, folding her arms on her chest, tapping her finger on her arm angrily.

"What? Was that a positive answer?" Her commander's fingers almost hurt her as they clung to her shoulders.

Arashi looked the other way, grunting "yes…".

The next second Lt. Hokuto was not there anymore; she dashed off to find a phone.

Arashi hung her head, shutting her eyes to fight back the headache pounding in her skull.

* * *

She spent the rest of her shift daydreaming. Yes she, Pr. Kishuu Arashi, was daydreaming.

A memory played before her eyes over and over again.

Cap. Kasumi asked her to go and do some contribution to their little garden's good keeping. She even canceled the shift she was supposed to have that time to allow her to do so.

Dragging the little wheelbarrow full of freshly bought bougainvillea and various tea or medicinal herb seedlings, Arashi entered the garden.

Her mind began racing when she saw no other then the enthusiastic, ever the klutzy, Sgt. Arisugawa working on the men's garden.

She did wonder why her commander shot her hand to her office phone when she began leaving her office to do her new duty. She did wonder why, as she spun around to see what her captain was doing, Karen hid the phone behind her back and giggled innocently.

This was all a great big plot wasn't it? God damn it, is this a prison or a match making office?

Pouting and frowning, she dragged the wheelbarrow to the little lawn patch where she was to plant the bougainvilleas and arrange a little herb garden, reluctant to work at all.

They even chose the patch of grass closest to the fence between the two gardens. They did the same with the patch Sgt. Arisugawa had to tend to.

And so, the two wardens were forced (although it was obvious that only one of them saw this as a nuisance) to work almost head to head.

She drew at her pants, elegantly kneeling by the grass patch. She arranged her green work apron so it blocked the ground's dirt from her uniform pants and began stabbing the grass roots with the little spade, taking her anger out on the yellowing dead grass.

"Aaaah! I should have thought about using the apron like that," came an annoyingly high-pitched holler from the goon on the men's side of the fence.

Arashi ignored him.

She couldn't help looking at him as he got up and looked at his uniform pants, where two big dirty rounds clung to the fabric at the knees.

"Awww man… And Cp. Aoki is such a strict guy when it comes to appearance…" He hung his head "Why don't you think sometimes you idiot?" he slapped his forehead. "Think, think, think, think, think!"

Arashi couldn't stop a tiny giggle from erupting. She regretted it immediately. She shot her eyes back to the yellow grass, ignoring the suddenly bright and hopeful eyes Sgt. Sorata was hanging on her.

They worked in silence for a long time, each sunk in his or her work.

From time to time Sgt. Sorata, who was making a total mess of his patch, asked Pr. Arashi for instructions on how to do this or that. She replied him with the same cool and careless tone she used on her prisoners.

"So…uh… How do I plant these?" He showed her a line of sunflower seedlings set in their earth so they'll be planted in a row.

Arashi analyzed the ground Sorata was about to plant them in, then the seedlings (trying desperately to avoid eye contact). With a sigh, she began instructing him.

He was an awful student. Whether he blundered over and over again on purpose or because his hands were too big to do such delicate motions, Arashi didn't know but it was annoying…at first…

She didn't know why she was finding this fun the more they worked together, why she was enjoying it more and more, why she wanted Sorata to ask her more questions, why she slowly took the sting off her rebukes whenever he made a mistake.

She wanted to stop herself from laughing when Sorata dug his little spade into the ground and back out in the wrong direction, showering himself with thin dark brown earth. She couldn't control it. She sat back on her heels, covering her mouth and closing her eyes as sweet relieving laugher rolled out of her freely. It was funny, but not _that_ funny…was it?

The earth-covered Sorata laughed as well at first but he stopped shortly, choosing to enjoy the sight of Arashi laughing.

It was a sign for him to attack her with all he had. He started telling jokes, tried to sound witty, tried to tell her about silly slips they had in his ward, about crazy funny things some of the prisoners did once.

She sat there on her side of the fence fighting with all her might to stop giggling like a rabid high school girl. She lost miserably.

Suddenly a notion struck her. He was planting sunflowers in the beginning of winter?

She asked him about it, trying to convey the message that he's a silly little boy through her tone. Failing miserably again.

Sorata stared at her powerfully, a smile tugging at his lips. "I know I'll have to wait a long time for them to bloom but I don't care. I'd like to care for them and make sure they'll survive through the winter, make sure they're all right. I'll spend all my time on caring for them if I need to. You know why I chose sunflowers?"

Arashi shook her head a little, her eyes refusing her rational mind's orders to stop staring back into Sorata's orbs.

"Because they start off all closed and shriveled but slowly, they open up, raising their heads to the sun's warmth and become the most beautiful flowers in the world."

Blinking madly, she tried to deny the heavy hidden message.

Sunflowers…she wondered if they'd still be around to bloom in the summer. From what she saw from her short visits to the garden she noted the seedlings were doing wonderfully.

Surely, from what she saw of his initial gardening skills, Sorata wasn't capable of keeping them in such a good condition… Perhaps he did mean what he said…

* * *

The warden's phone rang madly in the men's ward kitchen, the shrilling sound echoing painfully from the tiled walls.

"Okay, okay, I heard you, shut up God damn it!" Sgt. Sorata tore the dial off the hook violently. "Yes?"

"Gueeeeeeeeeeess whaaaaaat," came Lt. Hokuto's chirping from the other end.

The kitchen with all it's bustling prisoners, simmering pots and smoking cooking ovens, all melted away around Sorata. He muted the world around him so he could concentrate on the words he hoped to hear, suspected he might hear, wanted so _desperately_ to hear.

"Sh…she s-s-s…said yes?" He exhaled.

"Yup!" He could hear by her tone that she was smiling one of those cunning little clenched smile of her.

"No way!"

"Way, way!"

His knees threatened to betray and send him tumbling down to the slightly slimy floor. He clung to the wall; grabbing the dial so hard he heard the plastic squeaking miserably under his fingers. "You're not joking are you?"

"Why would I do something like that?"

His heart skipped a beat.

"Sgt., hey Sgt." Pr. Shiro was tugging his shirtsleeve trying to grab his attention.

"Not now," he whispered hoarsely at the younger man, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

Pr. Shiro backed off a bit, blinking with surprise. Finally he shrugged and moved off into the kitchen to have a look around.

Sorata only yanked his mind off the conversation for a bit to wonder what Shiro was doing here in the first place.

The young man seemed to be walking around for the sole purpose of strictly observing one of the prisoners here: Firebomb Fuma.

The Private glared fire down at the prisoner who was busy arranging the cupcake-leaden shelves inside the big baking oven.

Fuma glared back at him.

Poor kid, Sorata thought, still feels like he needs to assure his command over Fuma after that little event…

"Are you listening to me" came an angry shout from the end of the line.

Sorata tore the dial from his hear. "Ouch…yes I'm listening"

"She commented that she'd like to take a look at the latest Studio Ghibli film. She also commented she prefers traditional Japanese food and definitely hates Korean barbeque. If that's not enough of a hint for your date schedule I don't know what is."

"Aww…but I really like Korean barbeque"

"Sorata!"

He regretted putting the dial back by his ear "Ouuuuch…Okay, a dinner movie it is then."

"And lilies! Don't forget the lilies."

"I've sent her so many flowers so far…oh well…umm…now that I think about it, I don't think lilies will do good this time."

"Oh?"

"No, I passed by this flower shop the other day, I saw they had some lovely imported sunflowers…I think these should do for our first date…"

(tbc)

* * *

**Author's note: **forgive me while I go throw up my soul with the over romanticism…..I can't believe I wrote something so….so….sweet….gatta run to the bathroom now…. 


	3. Part 3

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. the Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here. Pochi Project was something I saw on Oz.

**Author's notes: **the ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters who in X are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

**Author's Thanks: _many thanks to my beta Kitsunia (she's in her finals, wish her good luck people!) _**_From _goes to Whitesakura (you know I'm here dear, I was also surprised, and much disgusted, that I can write something so darn fluffy and about the mind games you'll just have to wait), Amy Levi (yes I will dedicate a chapter to each character then I'll get to the top of the plot, it is equally exhausting to try and make a split chapter like that instead of straight lines of parallel plots but the structure will return to itself, please be patient, this is indeed a story that tries to look at _every_ character in X due to the fact that Clamp made them oh so perfect and wonderful and it'll be a shame to look into only four of them), Kuroshira (well guess what? It's your lucky day about Kakyou! Hope you'll like it!), Tekoo (you ARE special dear, in a slightly chobits way, kidding), Grubble (what happens in the basement? Ah, it's for me to know and for you to find out in future chapters dear ha ha). _From Clampesque board (not 'bord' like last time…): _the anon. reviewer (I will! I will! I am!). _from Adult Fanfiction: _to the anon. reviewer.

* * *

**Part 3**

When she felt her wrist searing with the ache of cramped muscles, Karen decided she has to take several things off of her keychain. Ignoring the pain, she turned the key in her home's front door and entered the house, stumbling and fighting the brown paper bags in her arms to not topple over.

She placed the huge keychain (actually a collection of several different key chains she received as gifts from former colleagues, current underlings and good friends in general) on the little stand by the door, noting the bottle filled with water and a torn branch of the fuchsia from the house's little garden is dangerously close to toppling over with the weight of the revived and growing branch. She made a note to herself to re-plant the branch in a pot of it's own and thank Yuzuriha for her kind contribution to the bottle's fresh water and good caring.

The chance to do so came bouncing on the tips of her toes around the corner from the living room, casting little hidden glances down at her feet as she leaped towards Karen. The youth took several bags from Karen's hands with the softness and pedantry of a nurse taking a baby into her arms, and carried them to the kitchen where she'll place the items belonging to the refrigerator on the kitchen table before the great white machine and those in less need of cooling on the kitchen's marble working corners where she snooped through them impatiently.

"Did you get a collar for Inuki," the young girl shot a hesitant question over her shoulders as she poked through the pile of MnM's and Pocky, obviously, intended for her.

Karen took her time on answering that question.

Yuzuriha was brought over at the age of eleven, a girl with big sad eyes, big hopeful heart about to burst into childish disappointment's icy splinters, and an imaginary friend; Inuki the spirit dog.

Her parents were friends of Karen from high school days, a pair of strict traditional yuppies (apparently a possible combination) with hearts too hard, life too busy and minds too narrow to understand what 'counselor', 'child psychologist' and 'listening to your child when it needs attention' to be able to cooperate with their daughter's insistence for seeing Inuki past the age of eight.

They gave Karen a monthly amount of money enough to buy food for the somewhat sweet-toothed girl, clothes for her growing early teenaged body and a little sum that would serve as pocket money for the little girl.

From the moment they walked out of Karen's house Yuzuriha never heard from the again. Karen saved the girl from the news of seeing the two pushing a baby carriage some ten months after Yuzuriha's abandoning.

Yuzuriha was at first very shy, in an abused puppy waiting for the next kick kind of way. She soon unraveled to reveal an energetic, ever enthusiastic, constantly happy, contagiously optimistic, life loving, and easy laugh young girl.

She was still a bit shy around strangers and took slightly lower then average grades in school as bad omens for her academic future but when Karen melted all those worries and pains away with hugs and hot tea cups Yuzuriha would bounce right back to her happy modes like a plastic bathtub toy filled with air pushed deep into water and returning to the surface right away.

And she insisted upon the existence of Inuki. Perhaps it was the relatively late age in which her parents abandoned her; and it was the obvious reason for it that made her stick to Inuki's existence. Karen liked to think about it as teen rebellion.

She never knew Inuki survived only because Karen had thought Yuzuriha to not talk to Inuki in public and to pretend to not have him by her side so that people won't look at her funny and pest her like her parents did.

"They don't have these things, you'll have to go to the pet shop honey."

Yuzuriha was the second 'orphan of life' Karen took in. It was during Yuzuriha's first days that Karen realized that helping people with all of her abilities was addictive.

She collected people like lost kittens and puppies from the streets and she couldn't care less what the strict, stoical society around her thought about it.

A happy little yelp marked Yuzuriha's discovery of chocolate covered mint sticks. Karen was just rearranging the frozen bags of vegetables and various meats so that the older ones would be up front, within reach, while the yet to be used in due time newly bought groceries waited their turn at the back of the fridge.

The yelp made her smile. Yuzuriha was a great helping hand around the house these days. Karen couldn't be filled with more pride to see the once timid frightened little girl grow into a responsible adult.

"You bought chocolate covered mint sticks," the teen chirped happily, bending down to grab a lump of frozen salmon fillets Karen handed out to the great beyond behind her back to help her with the re-engineering.

"You asked me to, didn't you dear?"

"I did! But then I asked you last week too but you didn't buy them." By the end of her sentence Yuzuriha was mumbling under her breath. Karen-san was far too kind, warm, loving, and a real mother to her then to deserve any trace of teen tantrums from her or anyone else.

Karen popped her head above the refrigerator's door for a second to stare at Yuzuriha with the packet of chocolate covered mint sticks mulled in her hands bashfully.

"Last week, darling, the store was out of them and the candy store nearest to here only had vanilla sticks."

In order to be able to properly house all of Karen's 'orphans' she had to move to a bigger house at the outskirt suburbs of Tokyo, where there were few grocery shops and most of them already old and overpowered by the huge newly opened hangar-like low priced mall of a grocery shop on the road conveniently leading from Karen's house to Sharonza prison.

For the ability to have their own room, the 'orphans' had to pay with delicacies such as slightly higher then average food items coming in high rarity.

"Oh well, thank you! I'll go bring this to 'Kyou!"

"That's a good girl."

* * *

From the kitchen, Yuzuriha dashed over to the television room, minding Inuki's whereabouts around her feet, to bring the candy to her so far best friend.

Kuzuki Kakyou sat on the big green sofa, its seat softened by its prior owners into a comfortable mush that fitted Kakyou's light weight and often physiotherapy aching muscles perfectly.

As soon as he heard the girl storming towards him, Kakyou turned his head lazily on its thin long neck and cast his sleepy eyes on the impending happy teen.

Within a moment the packet of chocolate covered mint sticks stood before his eyes, painfully close to them. Smiling faintly, Kakyou reached his thin long fingers and took the packet from her. With his long and strong fingernails (the only strong feature in him that wouldn't break under pressure) he prized the plastic seal off the top of the box.

He needed Yuzuriha's help with tearing the inner silver dyed nylon bag around the sticks.

With a happy smile, Yuzuriha tore the bag pretending it was Inuki biting one end of it instead of her left hand. She handed the open bag for Kakyou's eager fingers and awaited her reward.

Kakyou pulled two mint sticks out of the bag, placed them between his loose lips and handed a third one for Yuzuriha who pretended to share it with Inuki.

While munching contently on one of his sticks, Kakyou observed the girl feeding empty air to half a stick. "It's bad to give dogs chocolate, don't you know," he teased her, curling himself deeper into the worn sofa.

Yuzuriha stared at him for a while, trying to decide if he teased her out of maliciousness or was he actually speaking seriously to her. Since Kakyou was never the communicating type she never had the chance to get to the bottom of his personality.

But Kakyou just smiled and said. "Oh, right, I guess Inuki-kun isn't affected since he is a _spirit_ dog." He looked at her for a little longer, seeing the expression of a child stabbed at the back still lingering at the rims of her eyes. "I forgot, I'm sorry. Does he like it?"

With a head still slightly heavy with doubt, Yuzuriha nodded and walked away from the television room back to the kitchen mumbling for Inuki to go throw the stick out in the back yard.

It'll take her a few days to gain enough trust in Kakyou to speak to him again.

This is how vulnerable Yuzuriha is.

Kakyou smacked his palm on his forehead, swearing mildly under his breath at his stupidity.

Five months ago Karen sprained her ankle and came to be re-bandaged (she never really trusted the somewhat constantly high looking nurse at Sharonza's infirmary) and get a prescription for painkillers.

She noticed Kakyou sitting like a rag doll carelessly tossed into a wheelchair in the middle of one of the hospital's corridors she wondered in to (she was never really good with directions and all the corridors looked the same, damn it).

The bent over body, pale, thin beyond good health, it's long disheveled bright hair falling to obscure its face, cast like that in the wheelchair immediately turned Karen's alarms on.

She crouched at the feet of the wheelchair trying to peek into the face beyond the hair. She saw a pair of empty golden eyes and a face so blank it was obviously sad and lonely.

"Hello," she said kindly, placing her palm on the long thin hand dangling at the side of the wheelchair where it's supposed to grab the iron loop and propel Kakyou away from here.

The body did not reply. The palm was icy cold and limp.

An icy chill ran through Karen's back, starting with lighting in her mind and ending in a cold pool at the shallow of her belly. She leaped away and called a nurse (where she managed to find one three corridors down).

The nurse checked the body's pulse and sighed. "This is Kuzuki-san, he's always like that."

"How come he's here and isn't out there in the bright day's sun. Such an early spring sun will do him a world of good, I'm sure." Only Karen could lace such words of complaint with enough kindness and playing dumb to make the nurse miss the sharp criticism within it.

"Kaboke sensei ordered him not to be exposed to too much sun since he is can easily dehydrate. We take him out for short drives outside, five minutes each but not too much. He's more delicate then he looks, um?"

"Captain Kasumi." Karen was still in her uniform and decided to indulge in the authority they gave her over the nurse's somewhat common, weaker, pure white robe.

"Kuzuki-san, does he like staying here in the middle of the corridor for everyone to walk by and stare at?" She lowered the amount of kindness in her tone this time and avoided eye contact with the, by now, slightly timid nurse.

"Ano…the nurse on the shift before me must have been called to another room on an emergency. Perhaps she thought he'd like it better to sit here and look at the passer byes then to be cooped up in his room all the time."

Slowly, dramatically, Karen turned her head, lowered it to catch the nurse's big, on the brink of tears eyes with her cold harsh fiery ones. "Does it look to you like he's in any position to look at anyone?"

Kakyou's bowed head with its veil of hair obscuring any vision he might attempt to have, if he had willed himself to try it, was like a fist to the nurse's awareness as it stood there motionless and obvious at the edge of her vision.

The nurse bowed her head and mumbled her apology, turning to walk away.

"Wait."

The nurse turned around, clutching the chart board to her bosom like a comforting teddy bear. "Yes madam, I mean, Kasumi sensei."

"What is the story behind him?" Karen had her back to Kakyou, her arms folded on her chest demanding an answer.

"Ah, Kasumi sensei, I'm not sure we should talk so near him and I'm not entitled to give such information to strangers," the nurse mumbled, gripping at procedures like a man grabs his boat in the midst of a storm at sea.

"I don't think Kuzuki-san is in any way capable of hearing us, I think you and your colleagues saw to it that he stayed in this condition."

Before she was fully hit by the harshness of Karen's words the nurse had time to wonder how Karen was perceptive enough to note Kakyou was a male and not a female like anyone else would think at first. She looked around her back, into the rooms around them and made sure no one was here to hear them.

"Kuzuki-san is the son of a certain politician who's name I'm not permitted to tell you. He tried to run away from home and, mistaken for an intruder, was shot by his father's bodyguards. He is paralyzed from his lower back down and had only now emerged from coma, that is, he now began showing signs of recognizing his surrounding."

"Why would his father's bodyguards not recognize the son of the man they're protecting?"

"Ah, it seems-" and this is where the nurse overcame her fear under the need to gossip properly and neared Karen a bit "-that his mother forbade her son from ever stepping out of his room…"

Karen raised her eyebrows, looking at the nurse doubtfully.

"It was his step mother; he is the child of the minister's first and most beloved wife."

"Sounds too much like Cinderella to me." Karen tightened the folding of her arms on her chest, scolding the nurse with her gaze.

"It's true! His parents came over here only _once_ after Kuzuki-san's hospitalization. I hear the step mother talking about how she's going to give birth to Kuzuki-san's father and that they should go and prepare for the baby. At two month pregnant, why leave the sickbed of your son to start preparing for a baby that will arrive seven months later?"

The heated emotion in the nurse's voice and eyes made the icy walls of doubt in Karen's heart melt. It was then that her heart began opening its arms to the still oblivious Kakyou.

"But you know the step mother…she was of _that_ sort of women, with her make up and her western clothes…"

Karen translated the understated 'western' for 'tight, revealing, cheap' and nodded.

"She had the minister's head spinning, can you imagine?"

"Men," Karen huffed.

"And you know, when we called them about Kuzuki-san waking up she answered and you know what she said? She said 'oh well, you can keep him if you want' and hung up! Such behavior!"

Immediately Kakyou's fate was re-carved from rotting in this hospital or another to slowly recuperate and finally bloom again under Karen's roof.

The first thing Karen did was to send a letter, through her commander who happened to know Kakyou's father from the golfing club they both attended, to inform the minister of his son's new house and of her demanding for money to send him to proper physiotherapy.

The minister sent her back a letter with a sheet of bank paper containing a new order from his bank to transfer a monthly amount to Karen's account to support his son.

Karen wrote back that a father should come to visit his son, aught to do it, and that money would not suffice to revive his emotionally scarred for life boy.

The minister reported that he had far too many things in his schedule for such a thing and that he trusts Kasumi-san to do well with his money.

A less personal letter, written on a plain notebook paper sheet, in pen, carrying the minister's signature, asked Karen to send him photos of his son standing again, photos of him smiling, and to write her a weekly report of Kakyou-kun's well being.

Karen took her time to cool down from this two faced behavior and replied that in order to see his son standing or smiling he will have to come over and see his son face to face, and that such a thing alone will help his son pull both acts off.

The minister did not reply soon after. His next letter contained a much humbler plea and a little more money.

Once again Karen calmed her raging anger and took deep breaths as she wrote down that money only sours her empathy towards him and that kind words she brush completely off; she is affected by deeds not fancy words.

The minister did not reply. He came to visit.

Beyond the high white painted wall, between the thick flowery bushes, the minister observed his son sitting in the clear bright sunshine of mid summer, in his wheelchair, looking at a young girl playing with a ball.

Karen approached him with a broom as if about to shoo him out with violence (actually she was just brushing the path to the house from fallen leaves but she thought the impression might work something on the minister and make him either run away or walk into the house). She was about to say something awfully snappy to a minister in the government when she noticed the man before her became transfixed by something.

Yuzuriha had managed to throw the medium sized pink rubber ball into Kakyou's lap. Kakyou, who was staring at the nearby orange flowered bush, looked at the ball and with a faint smile grabbed it and pushed it against gravitation and his own muscle's limitations back to Yuzuriha.

The minister's eyes tracked the slim pale fingers slowly grab the ball and hurl it against all odds back into the air with amazement, and a great deal of love and pride. He watched the frail lips curve up in a smile and his heart became, most visible on his face, filled with happiness. He turned his teary eyes to Karen and bowed deeply, uttering endless words of thanks to the stunned woman before him.

Karen's eyes were also gathering tears and with the hormonal side effects of emotions swinging from one extreme to another, she offered him to come on in with a tear soaked crooked voice.

The minister shook his head; dabbing at his eyes with an old man's handkerchief, and sighed.

"I am afraid that my appearance will only damage him. You see, I've done too little and too late and that in itself is the worst wound I've inflicted on him. I don't want to wound him again. You are a good, kind woman Kasumi-san. You've not only helped save my son but helped save something in me, I'm forever grateful to you." He turned to walk away, noting his son had tossed the ball back to Yuzuriha once again, and then turned back to Karen again.

"Please." He bowed again. "If you see that my son is in a good enough shape, tell him of everything I did after you took him in. Don't sweeten the facts please, just tell him that if he wishes he can call me and I will come immediately to meet him. But only when you feel that he is ready for it, before that I prefer to stay out of his way."

He bowed once more and thanked her again, then disappeared into his shiny black minister's car and drove away, his eyes hanging at whatever he could see of his son from the blackened window of his car.

Karen lingered there, staring at the car's direction long after it disappeared, gaping, crying, and smiling.

Kakyou needed a lot of intense care at first. Karen bathed him, fed him, read to him and talked to him as if he was really there to answer back.

She combed his hair neatly, dressed him in brand new clothes and took him out to the park to look at things even if he did not as much as raise his head to actually cast his eyes upon anything.

Slowly, patiently, she broke through the walls he had built around his soul and, one by one, pried the first eye contact, nod, word, and smile out of Kakyou.

When he became communicative enough Karen began driving him to physiotherapy, using the money she received, used until then for clothes and new furniture for Kakyou's room.

Newer days Kakyou was able to keep himself upright on his legs for almost a whole minute, while heavily leaning on something for support. Kakyou had his first taste of champagne when he first managed to pull it off.

Karen drove Kakyou's wheelchair back into reality and society, into her love and the love of his brother and sister orphans.

Karen's greatest success so far was a shopping spree with him in Ginza, with Kakyou talking to her and to the salespersons all along the trip. So far Kakyou would only bow his head away in public and ignore any attempt from strangers to open conversation with him and hardly dared to speak up his opinions.

Deep inside of him Kakyou ignored all the sparkling Technicolor happiness around him, brushed off the sweet happy behaviors of his housemates and surroundings, refused to embrace the love and warmth around him. To his broken beyond repair heart, his forever frozen trust, this was just a passing phase and soon the pain his life so far showered him with will return again. Like it was every time for Kakyou. Maybe one day he'll come to realize it isn't true and lower his last guard.

* * *

When Yuzuriha walked back into the kitchen Nataku was already at the kitchen counter, chopping a long leek and feeding it to the boiling pot on the stove. Karen stood by him and chopped mushrooms.

Pouting at her obvious needlessness and at her role in helping to make dinner taken from her, she spun on her heels and dashed back to the television room to switch the channel from Discovery to the Japanese version of Cartoon Network to watch Sweet Valerian. Kakyou wouldn't mind and even if he did she'll poke her tongue at him and let him figure out that it's a punishment for what he said before.

Wordlessly, in complete coordination, Nataku and Karen worked on dinner for the house's residences. So were things with Nataku: silent, pure harmony, flowing and with a heavy, ever dark cloud of Nataku's existence hanging above him. Or her.

Nataku was the third orphan in the house.

He was born a hermaphrodite (or intersexual), not a man and not a woman. When he was an embryo his mother's pre-birth test showed that she would give birth to a healthy baby girl. But a series of failures to produce the right hormones his tiny body needed to follow his genetic blueprint deemed Nataku to be born with physical features of both sexes, ambiguous and mixed up. At birth, the doctors noted a jumble of limbs, twisted, blocking many feature vital for the young baby's healthy development.

Over the years Nataku underwent so many surgeries to help him overcome impending (or already raging) infections caused by his condition that he hated hospitals with his whole being. He'd beg his parents not to take him to surgery every time and, like every time, was overcome by pain enough to allow them to take him. The doctors operating him were often ill skilled at such maneuvers due to the rarity of cases like Nataku's. His parents did not have enough money to bring their son overseas to fully proper treatment.

As he grew older he showed no sign of developing into a woman and further examination of his already tormented body showed that his female organs were too tiny, too shriveled by receiving access testosterone amounts in the womb to ever function properly and so he was deemed a male and his registration name was switched from Kazuki to Nataku.

As he grew older and bigger the complications in his organs became so severe that the doctors offered only one solution: the removal of all features (by now over-handled and too scarred to be ever perceived or re-organized in a nearly esthetic shape), leaving Nataku with the ability to pass fluids without danger of infection. The ability to couple with others was beyond the question.

Many times, looking at his niece's Ken dolls, Nataku noted (through the black fog of his now full fledged chronic depression) that he resembled it too much to want to keep on living.

Karen had spotted Nataku in a men's clothing shop with his mother who grew tired of dragging a sack of flesh, bones and depression around. She only did it to keep him within eyeshot where he will not attempt committing suicide.

By now Nataku had attempted suicide six times.

Two times he tried to slit his wrists. One time he tried to leap off Sunshine 60 (where his mother worked as a secretary). One time he tried to leap before the cars of the main road a few blocks away from his house. One time he tried to hang himself. One time he took almost a whole bottle of his father's sleeping pills. Gladly the bottle was half empty by the time Nataku got his hands on it. The Tojou pharmacy pills worked with cruel efficiency, Nataku was clinically dead for two minutes.

When Karen saw him he was just scanning the droning horizon of the great store trying to find a meaning in the clothes he saw all around him and in his mother's shallow, fake happiness at shopping for clothes matching a sex Nataku did not belong in completely.

When their gazes met Karen felt an icy pinch to her heart as the loneliest, saddest, most lost looking eyes met hers.

But the young man's mother seemed to be very happy to have him around. It seemed fake, but it could be attributed to the fact that her growing teenaged son was having a teen depression. Karen actually felt pride and admiration at Nataku's mother, for striving to break her son's gloom with some lavishing and a breath of fresh air in the shop; she even shot a smile at her when the mother met her gaze.

As she tested the reflection of light off the exotic fabric of a tie she chose for her boyfriend, Karen noted that lonely looking lithe young man being abandoned by his mother.

Nataku stood there, a victim to the wind's changing directions at the wild city traffic, gazing about carelessly when his mother had had enough of it. Her son's palm felt limp in her hand, refusing to squeeze back as she tried to pull him into another shop. The scarred wrist she saw when she looked down at his palm made her shameful of her failure as a mother that it grew into anger and hate at her son. As she called Nataku's name he did not answer, choosing to stare around meaninglessly like a dummy. When she neared him to try and gaze into his eyes she saw an empty stare, without light, without life.

Holding back her tears she turned her back on him and walked away, into the subway station nearest to them. She put Nataku's little pathetic excuse for a normal functioning adult's purse in his hand, where his ID card was along with a few hundred yen bills she placed in it before she left. Then she tried to give her son a kiss on his cheek but found she had no more strength within her for it.

Just before she walked away she looked behind her shoulder and deep into her son's seemingly sightless eyes. "I'll be going now," she said, turned around, and left him to the world beyond.

She didn't even give him a proper 'Sayonara'.

Karen, who walked to the store's door when she noted the first signs of distress on the mother's face, immediately walked to Nataku's side and took his hand. She hesitated for a while, staring down at the staircase leading down to the subway as if expecting the mother to return, begging for forgiveness from her son. Then she shook her head, tossing all her silly illusions away, and walked back into the store.

She asked the salesman what the woman with the young man bought.

The man said she did not buy anything, and that she left all the clothes she chose on the counter and mumbled for him to forget about it. Karen nodded; walked to the tie rake to pick the tie she wanted earlier and added it to the pile of clothes Nataku's mother failed to provide for her son. She asked for all the clothes to be wrapped in as a present, the tie separate from the other items. She paid for it while violently gossiping with the salesman (who was, according to Karen's sharp senses, gay) about the latest teenager's idols and which one of them they both thought was hottest, testing her outing-of-the-closet abilities.

Then she stepped out of the store, took Nataku's hand in hers and walked him to the bus station then off to her house. She noted that, unlike with his mother's attempt at doing this, hers worked. She choked back the tears.

When she sat Nataku on his newly spread sheets, on his new bed, in his new room, she placed the gift-wrapped package in his empty lap.

He opened it, examined the clothes inside the twinkling paper wrap and raised sad lonely eyes, filled with timid hope, filled with tears, to Karen.

He told her, in short, his tale. Those were the last words he had uttered since his arrival at Karen's 'orphanage'. Then he collapsed into her embrace and they cried their eyes out together, their arms entangled.

Nataku was very productive in the household; doing the laundry, hanging it, doing the dishes and cooking for the rest of the house's residence when Karen was at work, cleaning the cat sands, taking the dogs for a ride while rolling Kakyou in his wheelchair along. Without words he helped Yuzuriha with her math homework and in his free time he studied for his university entrance exam.

Nataku had not yet decided what he wanted to study in university. He just wanted to slowly introduce himself back into society, as someone whose personality he had not yet determined completely but was hell bound on finding.

He and Karen had a nasty habit of eating chocolate and ice cream on the big sofa in the television room and watch late hour soap operas and yaoi videos Karen rented once she realized she had someone to share them with.

As the final stages of dinner were finished both Karen and Nataku rinsed their hands in the kitchen sink and smiled at each other, content.

They filled up the food bowels and plates, piled them on two trays and along with two jugs (one of apple juice and one of cola) climbed the stairs to the third floor where the Studio lay.

Following the good smell and Karen's fake hoarse marketplace shouts, Yuzuriha tore herself off the television screen, yanked Kakyou away from the sofa into her arms and hurried up the stairs to the Studio.

* * *

The Studio was the lair and Wonder Cave of Kazuhiko Hinoto, a crippled artist.

A timid young woman, gentle of speech and movements (unless it was when she sat looming over her canvases, but that came far later after Karen 'adopted' her), constantly apologetic for her limitations, shriveled with the patronizing approach strangers gave her when seeing her almost childish features and her handicap.

On the way back home from her very first shift in Sharonza, Karen drove by the high walls of the mental institution where Hinoto stayed since she was ten.

If it weren't for the sick cat in a box on the passenger's seat by her, Karen would have zoomed past the institution as she usually does. But on that day she drove slowly and could notice, as she drove up a hill overlooking the institution's limited yard, the young girl sitting under a wisteria tree looking at the sky.

It turned on her alarms and she made a U turn (ignoring a few rules on safe and legal driving as she did it and constantly lecturing herself that it was okay even if she was actually a cop) and parked near the institution's gates.

It was sheer luck that Karen had somehow resembled Hinoto's niece who had once upon a time, some sixteen years ago, visited Hinoto in her family's last visit. The head nurse, a sharp woman with amazing visual memory, thought the young girl she saw once grew into this woman who came asking her about the dreamy looking girl in their yard.

Smiling, with a heart full of hope for a patience to actually leave this institution into the hands of the big world outside, the nurse led Karen to the young woman and overlooked them as they chatted for a while.

Looking at Karen loading Hinoto into her car's back seat, she wondered if that woman really _was_ Hinoto-san's niece. The she remembered the soft pure warmth coming from Karen, the perfect kindness radiating from her and decided that it didn't matter. Anywhere would be better then here and god only knows Hinoto had stayed here for long enough.

Hinoto discovered drawing when she once asked Karen to help her express herself. Words were beyond Hinoto since all she could do was whisper in an apologetic voice and mumble in the lowest self-confidence seconding only Nataku's some seven years later.

Karen had brought Hinoto a few big sheets of paper and some finger paints and watched as, as if by magic, Hinoto picked matching colors and dabbed them with her tiny babyish fingers on the papers with amazing talent to create beautiful things.

When Karen dated an arts dealer she bought Hinoto a proper canvas and acrylics, pushing the final results (with a great deal of sweet talks and several sexual favors) into her new boyfriend's hands.

When Hinoto became well known enough and began receiving orders without the need of the art dealer's negotiation, Karen broke up with the annoying man, mentioning not a single word of how she hated him to Hinoto might she slay the woman's creativity with one word.

Hinoto became a well-known artist, her masterpieces hung in modern arts museums in New York, in the gallery of a devoted (and rich!) fan in Belgium, a few museums in London and in a museum in Berlin. She giggled shyly as Yuzuriha practiced her English reading and Karen her English translating of highly admiring articles about her art.

Despite her ever-growing bank account Hinoto refused to leave Karen's house, saying, "I will never abandon my savior and muse".

Whenever Nataku was too depressed to get out of bed, when Kakyou fell in physiotherapy and returned with a murky mood, when Yuzuriha came crying home because she forgot to not talk to Inuki in public and got teased or reprimanded by her teachers, Karen would walk out to a corner in the back yard, take a deep breath and remember those words Hinoto said. Then her hope was rekindled and she became strong once more.

The Studio was also the favorite spot for the house's animals: an old Yorkshire terrier who's owners were about to put to sleep due to his lack of ability to amuse their children, a white tiny poodle who's previous owners carelessly took out to long strolls without sunscreen and now suffered from an ongoing (and probably fatal eventually) skin cancer, a car hit surviving cat who suffered brain damage and would not be able to control his toilet ability (amongst ever changing moods and violent flipping on the living room carpet), a female cat who crawled into a car one cold winter night to be mostly torn away the next morning by the engine's fan blades leaving her deformed and scarred but alive and very sweet, and another car hit feline survivor with two hind legs missing leaving room for a great appetite for playing and food whom Nataku hurried to carry to the Studio whenever the cat dragged itself by the stairs.

Dinner was always eaten here, with everyone gathered in a circle (animals included), scattered on the paint-splattered furniture in the room. Karen poured red wine for those who were old enough to drink it and listened to the day's accounts from everyone before giving her own along with a few dirty jokes she heard from Sgt. Sorata today. She made her family giggle even harder when she told them how Arashi reacted when it slipped to Lt. Hokuto-chan that it was Sorata who told them all these obscenities.

Kakyou filled Karen in on what happened in the daytime soaps Karen liked the most and waved off Nataku's nods of thanks for helping him verbalize what he could not. Kakyou only sat before the brain draining programs to help Nataku help Karen.

Then Hinoto explained Yuzuriha why she can't see her works before they're done, helped by Karen who pressed in the last of the reasons and rid Hinoto of the girl's latest naggings.

Then Yuzuriha walked down to sleep (it was a school night), along with Kakyou who said his brain had turned into miso soup from all the soaps earlier today and he had to let it reform into a well thinking human brain.

Hinoto resumed her wild splashes of colors at the canvas at her mercy, apologizing for Ein (the old terrier) when she heard the paint had fallen on something that wasn't her canvas or the floor (the dog didn't mind at all).

Nataku and Karen retired to Nataku's study to overlook his latest mock exam sheets and then to the television room to turn their brains into miso soup.

Later at night, after taking a long hot shower to melt the tension out of her shoulder blades, Karen finally flopped into bed to sleep.

Just before she fell asleep she realized she did not call her boyfriend today, not even once.

* * *

The next day, as she stood appreciating Sorata's well developing sunflowers (looks like they really _will_ survive the winter!), she noted Cp. Aoki walk into the men's ward side of the garden with light bouncy steps.

"Good morning," she chirped at him suddenly feeling the sun on her skin even if it was actually hidden behind a heavy layer of soon to rain clouds.

Cp. Aoki beamed a bright apologetic in a childish kind of way smile and laughed. "I knew I over worked, last time I was greeted by someone they said 'good evening'."

Karen burst into laughter, noting she was laughing harder then the joke deserved it and did it naturally and not from a sense of forcing herself to flatter a man.

"I know what you mean." She was going to say 'my boyfriend called me to ask me where I've been all night' but she stopped herself. By then she knew why.

Cp. Aoki ran his hand awkwardly through his hair and just then the sun chose to gleam out for enough time to catch on the gold of his marriage ring; another reminding jab to her heart.

At once, the sky became sunless again and this time Cp. Kasumi noted it. It was like the light has been switched off in her heart as well. She chatted with the kind Cp. Aoki a little more before she excused herself back to the office with a lame excuse.

As she walked around her ward, trying to ventilate her seething mind and suddenly aching heart, she caught sight of two women in one of the cells in a position that turned the alarms in her head (the 'danger' alarms her profession gave her).

With all her might she walked in on Kanoe leaning with a malicious leer over Satsuki who was backed up into her own cell's wall.

"Don't let me bother you ladies." She leaned against the transparent wall and folded her arms on her chest.

For a brief moment a light of gratefulness flickered in Satsuki's eyes as she slipped out of Kanoe's trap and on to her bed.

Kanoe turned sharply on her high heels and folded her arms of her (ampler then Karen's) chest glaring at the commander of her wardens.

"You have a problem with what we were doing," she hissed.

"Not at all, I have nothing against the blooming of love within these walls only I think that when it is unrequited love, _forced_ unrequited love, it should be cut at the stem."

Satsuki rolled onto her side on the bed and fell asleep.

Kanoe glared at Karen who glared back forcefully doing the slight hunch of her shoulders that made the ranks on her shoulders gleam in the cell's lights to show who Kanoe was glaring at.

After brushing her hair back behind her ears elegantly and raising her chin as high as she could with out looking ridiculous, Kanoe stormed out of the room proudly.

Karen smiled to herself and shot her eyes to the sleeping Satsuki. "You're welcome, young girl."

Satsuki ignored her.

Karen walked out of the cell and straight into her office where she peeled off the 'tough warden commander' mask and crashed into her chair.

How she hated to be reminded that Cp. Aoki was married!

Her cell phone sprang into life with an incoming call from her boyfriend. Remembering the fancy dinners her current boyfriend had taken her household out to, the trip to Tokyo Disney he had promised them on the first day of spring, Karen picked the phone up with the sexiest "Hellooooooooo" she could produce.

Her boyfriend chirped right back to the happy mood as soon as he heard it and immediately accepted her pitiful excuses as for why she didn't call him all of yesterday.

Men, Karen concluded, were too foolish and simple to not have women around to help them channel their means into better and smarter directions (who happen to match women's sense of taste in clothes, food and other luxuries men lavished on women given enough of what they needed).

Closing the cell phone once the conversation ended, she looked out through the window in her office. Clasping the cup of tea she prepared herself while on the phone, Karen found that she was crying.

It was because, as she looked back on her approach to men, that she noticed that Cp. Aoki is nothing like that. She _knew_ he was nothing like that because of various stories about him from his underlings, from her own conversations with Cp. Aoki and from a brief conversation she had with his wife as the lady visited her ward.

Aoki Shimako was a simple woman, a good-natured woman with enough emotional intelligence to compensate her simple education. She was clever and warm and simple to be competed by Karen. There was no way Karen would allow herself to step up and try to lure Cp. Aoki away from Shimako-san, she believed in the sisterhood of women too much to do such a thing just like she never dated a married or already spoken for men, as tempting and loving as the men could be.

And the only men Karen ever knew to be an exception in her theory of men was taken from her, madly in love, fathering a young girl and completely blind to all of Karen's uncontrolled flirtations.

She often wondered why she fell for Cp. Aoki, on a long ago early spring day, why him of all men. After all she met kinder, sweeter men then him. She broke up with men twice better for her then Cp. Aoki, simply because they bored her after a while. So why did her heart linger on this man of all of them?

* * *

"Hot gossip! Hot gossip!" Lt. Hokuto leaped her way through the little garden to the classic bench Karen used for her cigarette breaks (she only smoked at work and even those cigarettes were the extra thin, extra long, low on nicotine fancy women's cigarettes). The tray containing cups of tea and a little kettle kept amazingly balanced during the young woman's leaps and careless steps.

"What did you hear?" Karen straightened her back to sit normally after stretching out catlike on the bench in the rare light of the sudden winter sun.

"Didn't hear from someone else, heard it from the source itself! It was a confession!" Hokuto placed the tray on the bench between them and clapped her hands as she straightened her long uniform skirt and sat down properly to keep creases from the well-ironed dark blue fabric. She sat teasingly quiet and waited her commander to urge her to speak.

Karen's patience snapped. "…Well?"

"Second Lt. Magami and Corp. Monou…" Hokuto hung huge glittering eyes at her commander.

Karen's eyes widened in amazement. "They're finally together?"

Hokuto nodded. "Finally _confessed_ about it that is, they've been together for almost a year now!"

Karen was left speechless for a moment, mouthing a little in shock. When she recovered she poured her and Hokuto a cup of tea each and cradled hers in her palms, blowing on the water surface from time to time as she gazed forward at a bush of red camellias, oddly still blooming in the cooling air.

"I can't believe it happened under our noses for so very long and we weren't aware of it," she finally mumbled. "How come they felt comfortable enough about it to tell us only now?"

"Ah, that is because most of their romance was when Corp. Saya was still married." Hokuto blew the fumes off of her cup, gazing at her pondering commander.

"I see…but still…I could have been there for them."

"They knew it, they just thought they aught to face this together with as little help from the outside as possible, they insisted upon being strong, you see."

"I'm so proud of them." A long pleasant smile stretched of Karen's lips uncontrollably. "So, it's going to be their anniversary soon right? Do you think it'll be proper to get them something?"

"Karen-san, it's a private matter such things!"

"Yes but still…"

"If anything, I think Saya would prefer to celebrate her divorce ending." Hokuto giggled at that.

"Remind me again of why they divorced? Besides the fact that her husband looked like a block of flesh with small eyes and small brain?"

Hokuto laughed out loud, clapping her hands happily "Infertility, I think. Impotency as well. He's a Shinto priest, the gods take up his time more then his wife ever did."

Karen hissed on her tea and laughed mockingly. "That is ridiculous, did he show no interest in her at all?"

"It was an arranged marriage, uncalled for, and he had never once showed her a single trace of affection."

"No matter she crossed over back to her side of the playground."

"Karen-san, that's not how the saying goes," Hokuto giggled out.

"Whatever, I'm too old for all these modern catchphrases anyway."

"Don't be ridiculous, you're not so old Karen-chan!"

Karen whipped her head to Hokuto with sharp piercing eyes "How old do I look to you?"

Hokuto stared into the face of her commander, trying to decide if she should answer honestly or tactically. "I don't know, how old are you?"

Karen batted her eyelashes, ran her fingers elegantly through her curls to bounce them up a bit and smiled sheepishly "I'm only 29, you know."

Hokuto burst into a fit of laughter.

Her brother's head appeared in the window overlooking the men's ward's staff garden; he looked worried at his sister's burst of happiness.

"Good day Lt. Sumeragi-san," Karen chirped at him, waving her hand over-enthusiastically.

Subaru stared at her and waved faintly. He looked to both his sides to see no one was looking at him, and then fished in his uniform shirt for his cigarettes to light one.

"**_Oi Subaru!_** I'm _right here_ you know," his sister immediately barked at him, her cheerful behavior changing completely from super happy to super angry.

Up in his window, her younger brother was taken aback by the shock of that discovery (he didn't notice before though she was in clear sight of him) and paled.

"Oh let him smoke, the poor thing, you know how busy he is, until he has a time for a cigarette break you come in and ruin his fun."

Hokuto turned her fiery eyes to her commander. "But I asked him to at least not smoke in front of me! It's not fun seeing my brother slowly kill himself!" The last few words she said more to her brother up in his hiding place then to Karen.

"Hokuto-chan." Karen laid her arm across her underling's shoulders which tried to shrug it off. "Hokuto-chaaaaan."

Hokuto shrugged once more, pouting, and turned her head childishly away with a grumble.

"I'm sorry." Karen turned, laughing lightly, to her underling's twin. "That's all I can do Subaru-kun!"

Immediately, Subaru turned off his cigarette, with a violent crushing on the window ledge. "Don't call me that," he almost barked at her and vanished back into his ward.

Karen was left dumbfounded. "Hokuto-chan…I think he…I think he yelled at me…"

Hokuto looked back up at the now empty window "Good, he's showing emotions more and more now."

"He does?"

A loving smile shone on from Hokuto. "Yes, he's getting better now-a-days, really, really better." She turned her proud eyes to her commander who in return squeezed her in for a hug.

* * *

Sharonza's counselor was a lovely young lady with soft features and big, ever wondering eyes by the name of Kotori. Just 'Kotori', family names and other honorific she shunned out bashfully, asking her visitors to treat her as their closest friends.

She was very new to the prison, her first 'mission', and already she managed to arrange several yoga lessons (to calm nerves) for the staff of the high security wards, a Star festival small activity and was now up to her neck in trying to arrange something for the New Year.

Karen had made an appointment with her at 13:00 today. She entered the counselor's office when Kotori was just feeding her birds.

Kotori's office, unlike (surely) any other offices in the whole of Japan, had a huge wall sized cage of cute chirpy little birds in a variety of colors, shapes and calls. She was just hanging a plastic stick covered with honeyed grains, nuts and berries for the birds to peck from. She turned around a beamed a huge kind smile at Karen.

Karen moved uneasily towards the big, deep, light purple single seat sofa in Kotori's office placed before the counselor's big comfortable leather chair.

Kotori took her clipping board and sat down with a heavy thud on her chair. "Yes Cp. Kasumi, how may I help you?"

With a only few words at first, then with a free flow of long sentences, Karen spoke of Cp. Aoki and of her mixed feelings about her feelings for him. All the while Kotori listened, nodded, put down her clipping board and folded her palms neatly on her legs.

When she finished Karen returned her gaze to the young woman after her eyes drifted to the bird cage, then the big window to it's right, then to Kotori's little table filled with jumbled papers and cute little trinkets and office toys.

"Well, what do you think sensei?"

Kotori giggled. "Please don't call me sensei, I'm not a trained psychologist."

"Whatever…" Karen felt uneasy both for revealing so much of herself to someone she still regarded as a stranger and for Kotori's awful young age (she was about the same age as Pr. Arashi!).

"I think that you insist upon giving yourself the worst of the good things around you."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Oh, please don't be offended." Kotori seemed awkward now, and a little frightened as well. "I just think that you deserve so much better and yet you linger on those out of your reach, that's all…"

Karen stared at the young woman before her. Her mind was filled with too many needs to call Kotori a bitch in various formations to be able to think of how right she was.

"Karen-san, if I may call you that-"

Karen blinked for approval, her head still tilted slight backwards as if to better regard Kotori and find out where the hell that comment came from.

"I've been looking into your personal files and…" Kotori now began fumbling awkwardly with her writing board.

"**_What?_**_Who gave them to you?_" Karen sat upright, grabbing at the sofa's armchairs as if she's about to get up and leave or leap at Kotori to yank the files back.

"I…I was given them when I started this position. I need such information in order to do my job right. It's strictly confidential and no one but me is allowed to read it. Your information is safe Cp. Kasumi-san, please don't worry."

Somewhat still angry, Karen leaned back into the chair, folding her arms on her chest.

The files contained the first interview Karen had in her duty as a ward, a part of the welcoming interviews she had when she was but a mere rookie.

It contained the information that she was the orphan of a single mother who, before her departure to a better world, used to beat her little girl.

It contained the name of the catholic orphanage Karen grew up in and a small review of her personality from the priest running the institution.

"You deserve better Karen, you really do. You think that good things never come to those who don't work hard for them but…you're working hard enough Karen-san, you do, and yet you never bother to claim the best."

Kotori hoped that small, understated advice would help get the message through.

Karen sat, dumbfounded, half curled in the big embracing sofa and thought for a while before she realized it was time for Kotori's next meeting.

As she felt a kind little hand touching her shoulder with the tips of its fingers, Karen shook herself out of her bewilderment and looked up at the softly smiling Kotori with big eyes as clear and innocent as a baby's.

"I'm sorry Cp. Karen-san but we ran out of time and I need to prepare myself for the next person."

"Oh, right." Karen shook herself and leaped to her feet, suddenly noting Kotori was blushing.

"What is it dear," she asked, sniffing out a little piece of gossip to share with her mates back in her ward.

"Oh it's nothing really…nothing at all."

Roles were reversed as Karen wrapped a motherly arm around Kotori's narrow frail shoulders. "Go on, you can tell me, you know."

Kotori hung her head and blushed even deeper. "It's nothing…it's just that…um…my next 'client' is…well…it's Pr. Shiro…" She looked away shyly, her face afire.

Karen was about to comment that the boy seemed to be somewhat…too feminine for her, but she decided to not do it.

"Good luck then," she giggled and gave Kotori an encouraging pat on the shoulder before she left.

She heard Kotori thank her bashfully as she exited the office.

As she drove back home that day, Karen contemplated the meaning of Kotori's words and became filled with restlessness.

Sure, she'd do anything to shake out the strangely insistent love she felt for Cp. Aoki, it'd do a world of good to her current relationship, which brings to her nothing but good things. She will shake that love off, at least from important role it took in her current life.

Yet she wondered; will she ever forget about him completely? Will she ever seize to look back at that man and wonder what could she have done to make him hers?

Will she be stuck, forever standing and watching from the side, envious at a woman who got to the best thing first without ever knowing that there were people far better deserving a kind man like Seiichiro's?

Karen shook her head a little and resumed her strict gazing at the road before her.

She stopped at the huge grocery store to pick up things for dinner today. Life, after all, must move on, and who was she to give up on shepherding her 'orphans' back to life and love?

And so, with her work's needs of her, with her adopted children's needs of her, Karen kept on going. Living from the strength she gave and the strength those she gave it to gave back to her.

* * *

Looking back on it, she always regretted not separating Kanoe and Satsuki completely the first time she noted them hanging around too much.

(tbc)


	4. Part 4

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. the Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here. Pochi Project was something I saw on Oz.

**Author's notes: **the ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters who in X are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

**Author's Thanks:_  
__To me devoted beyond good health and sleepless (minus Ritsuka and Soubi, ah, i made a funny) beta_**. to Tekoo (Tekoooooooooooooooooo! I'm glad I made you feel domestic and yes Karen deserves much respect in this story and in X in her original form!), to Elf Asato (my dear, my darling, many many many many thanks for the Pysio review and the hint within it, here you go with a new Behind chapter. You really shouldn't worry about this story stopping, it's just that I have _many_ other stuff to write 6 other fics…da-amn! and it takes me time to get around and write them all what with me trying to work and earn money to move out of my parent's house and all. Anyways thank you!), Shinzona (ah Shinzona……what have though done to me….I am so ashamed of this, so unprofessional and embarrassing, thank you for pointing it out to me or I'd probably do the same mistake here –headdesk- and don't you go cracking no whips as no bishies! They're mine MIIIIIIIINEEEEEEEEE my preciousssssssssss…..yes I've been watching LOTR, can you blame me for wanting to see some Legolas goodne….I mean…a good movie –ehem-), Yukio from AFF (henh, here's chapter 4 for you, with what Sorata spoke of and don't worry Sei-Sei and Suby-kun will come up later in the chapters) and Geuna from AFF (I like your nickname for Sei-Sei XXXXXD) last but not least R chan from AFF (by any chance? Well, you'll get the answer to that soon won't you).

**Author's Note: **there you go folks, the long awaited Fuma/Kamui chapter, I hope you'll like it! oh and it's SH-A-R-O-N-Z-A prison –headdesk- many apologies for the mistake in the previous chapter.

* * *

**Part 4 **

In the usually quiet and lenient Sharonza Heights, despite it being the home of many dangerous criminals, the 'baptism of fire' of a new warden is usually a small matter.

A small matter to a well-trained and Sharonza-knowledgeable warden, that is.

To a new warden fresh from the academy with ironed-in creases at the back of his shirt which he had to make for the formal appearance in his rank-receiving ceremony(1), the 'baptism is a nerve-wrecking, horrid, shocking, frightening experience never failing to let go of their memories to the end of their days.

After this 'baptism the newbie is declared a fully qualified warden in the prison and generally has a better life. No more back-to-back shifts, no more pranks from other wardens, no more slight disrespect from their senpais (2).

Pr. Arashi, having started her warden career under the regime of Cp. Kasumi and her band of loving warm wardens, never had such treatment before or after her 'baptism' for it was against the general atmosphere in her ward.

Her 'baptism' was when Satsuki had finally had enough of the no computer 'diet' forced on her and, maddened, leaped at Arashi with her claws aimed to carve the porcelain beauty some new facial features.

Pr. Kishuu had her stunt gun, her teargas can and enough agility to quickly duck the young woman. The incident ended with zero casualties besides Satsuki in the 'hole' for two weeks.

As she made her way to her commander's office to give a full report of what had happened for bureaucracy's sake and for future education of many more newbies to come, her comrades huddled around her draping arms and kisses on her, congratulating her for handling the situation so brilliantly.

Indeed no one ever reacted to such a blunt, out-of-the-blue attack before and a newbie at that! The incident was passed on to many generations to come in Sharonza's women's ward.

Cp. Kazumi, noticing the mess in the hall, popped her head out of her office and hollered hoarsely at her women "OI! You let go of her right now you bunch of rabid fangirls! Have you no shame? Look at the poor little girl lost in the woods of you lot! Lt. Sumeragi, you bring Kishuu-sama here right now!"

"Yes madam!"

Arashi felt hands of steel clamp on her arm and suddenly the mass of squealing praising female voices, pressing lips and limbs were no longer entangling her like tentacles of a crazed monster.

She was in her commander's office so quickly that for a whole minute she stood blinking and baffled absent-mindedly at her red haired commander.

"_Pr. Kishuu,_" the captain boomed suddenly, her fiery red eyes almost glowing.

Lt. Sumeragi stretched into a stiff attention piercing the private before her with emerald picks.

Arashi quaked.

"**_OH MY GOD! WELL DONE DARLING,_**" the captain suddenly burst and flung herself onto the girl.

Arashi, who was shorter then her captain failed once more to retrieve her coherent line of thought as she suddenly found herself hard pressed against two ample breasts under the bright blue uniform shirt. All she could focus on was the lovely rich flowery scent of her commander's perfume.

Next came the equally squishing hug from Lt. Hokuto who smelt of citrus perfume and the faintest scent of cigarettes (she walked up on her brother and tore the cigarette out of his poor hand earlier that day).

"You have done spectacularly Arashi-chan, so, so, so brilliantly well preformed! Such performance! Such cool, calculated handling of the situation!" Cp. Kazumi raved on, pressing her well-manicured, well bejeweled palm to her chest where her heart is.

"Why, the wardens who came there told me that you never even flinched, that you never even changed your expression!" Hokuto chimed in just as enthusiastically.

"Ah…that is not entirely correct madam."

"Hokuto-chan."

"That is not entirely correct…Hokuto-chan…"

"Oh?"

"I grimaced." Arashi hung her head in defeat.

The silence in the room, much like its higher-in-rank occupants, couldn't fathom the way of thought in which the private expressed herself.

"You grimaced," Cp. Karen gasped.

"_Grimaced?_" Hokuto chimed in.

Arashi nodded, her eyes still exploring the floor beneath her shamefully.

"_GRIMACED,_" the captain cried.

"**_G-R-I-M-A-C-E-D-?-!_**" Her buddy to newbie-tormenting added.

Arashi took a deep breath and awaited whatever came next; a punishment or a joke on her expanse, she didn't know which of the ones she found worse though she had a sneaking suspicious she was heading towards the latter.

"My darling, my dear, my sweet, my beloved Arashi-chan, nay, today we will call you 'Arashi-sama.'"

"Oh no Captain," Arashi heard herself suddenly beg.

"It's okay to grimace my love, most newbie wardens would shriek in panic and run away crying to mommy."

Hokuto nodded enthusiastically, a philosophic expression on as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

Karen leaped off her chair and flung the office door open violently "Ladies," she barked into the halls and corridors of her ward. "A celebration is required for our newest sister's baptism of fire!"

Shrieks of joy and yells of excitement answered her from the women.

Two strong palms landed on Arashi's shoulders, making her sit on the chair before Karen's desk then spinning the chair around to face the office's door. The palms began working a wonderful (if not a bit too forceful) massage onto Arashi's tense muscles.

Pr. Kishuu was fed chocolate and cake and a special cupcake her commander baked in wait for this day to come (every new warden received this cupcake once experiencing their 'baptism') and praised and kissed and hugged many a time.

Arashi sat on the chair and blushed madly concentrating on pretending to not be there.

The next thing she was lead to the garden to…eh…have a breath of fresh air.

Little did she know that just before she was wheeled out of Karen's office (for she was still very much glued with fear to the office utility on wheels) her captain tore her phone's receiver off it's hook and told Cp. Aoki of the male ward. "You bring Sgt. Sorata down to your garden right now you hear me?"

Sorata was clawing at the fence between the two gardens, his eyes almost popping out of their sockets as he stared at the door leading into the women's ward from their garden with a puppy's loyalty and excitement.

He watched as Cp. Karen and Lt. Sumeragi brought Arashi to the garden.

He watched as, having noticed his presence there, Arashi began clawing and kicking her way back to her ward (with very little success).

"Pr. Kishuu Arashi-sama had gone through her 'baptism of fire' today," Cp. Kazumi informed Sorata officially along with the event's details.

Sgt. Arisugawa stood bewildered in the cold wintry air and wallowed in tears. "Kyaaaaaaaaaa," he informed the ladies finally.

"Do men 'kyaa'?" Lt. Sumeragi pondered.

"My angel is so brave," the sergeant whimpered.

"I am _not_ your angel," the private seethed.

"My babe is so strong!" The sergeant wept.

"I am _NOT_ your babe!" The private stifled a scream.

"My beloved is pure perfection," the sergeant grabbed his fist to his heart and quivered with excitement, his face red and his eyes shut tightly to stop any more un-masculine tears from running down his blushing cheeks.

"**_GET ME OUT OF HERE,_**" the private heard herself scream hoarsely before she bolted out of there, into the lockers room where she changed into civilian attire, dashed out to catch the next bus back to her home where she shot into bed to snuggle up under the duvet and pretend she does not exist and that today never happened.

Not only did the day exist, it did not end there. Oh no, not at all.

She was dragged off to a nearby pub to celebrate her ceremony onwards. Sorata was there as well though, despite many a valiant attempts, he could not break through the tight ring of merry (half or completely) inebriated comrades of his angel's whom would not let go of her.

Arashi discovered that alcohol was a wonderful means of pretending she was not there and actually feeling it too.

That was the 'baptism of fire' for Sharonza Hights' Last Age of Peace's first private.

* * *

Satsuki sat curled up at the corner of her metal and glass confinement cell, kicking herself deeper and deeper into the corner until she bruised her back with the pressure.

She clawed at her scalp and forehead as she ran her hands frantically through her shortly cut hair. Her eyes stung, for many time she cried while hardly blinking or sleeping to give them a rest.

Her mind was feverish with thoughts of hate and plots of revenge.

Most of all was the looming boredom hung above her like a pendulum slowly swinging down towards her. Without her computer, without anyone here to stimulate her brain she will go crazy.

She did not go crazy in the end; she only broke down a little. The many changes she's gone through after her confinement is the stuff of a different chapter but for now the only thing needs saying is this:

Satsuki swore revenge against Pr. Kishuu Arashi of Sharonza Heights Women's Ward and she, in due time, will have this revenge carried out fully.

* * *

The 'baptism of fire' in Sharonza Heights was never really a very violent event and the principle that whatever happens, the newbie will never be physically or mentally harmed beyond a certain (very low) limit was well pressed and preserved in the protocols and regulations of both the prison's wards.

A more experienced warden will always keep a close eye on the pre-'baptism' newbie and be within reach to keep harm from being done so the event would usually go in the wards' protocol as a tiny incident mostly joked about.

The usual 'baptism' would be a prisoner refusing to listen to the newbie's order because said newbie would not say their command in a stern enough voice and failed to portray themselves as the commanding person around the prisoners.

In these evens the newbie would have to straighten their stand, better their voice and re-command the prisoner, even order for the prisoner's punishment until what was needed doing would get done and the newbie would accumulate the correct form of prisoner-handling.

Another form of 'baptism' is a prisoner caught in the act of some form of rebellion or mischief by a newbie. In that case the newbie would have to scold the prisoner properly, find and issue the right punishment for such an act and carry these two missions in a way that would bring the least humiliation over him.

This, most wardens would recall, is the hardest of acts because often the prisoners still frightened the newbies somewhat and the sudden power to issue the order of punishment would bring authority's excitement and giddiness over them along with the mind-erasing, all consuming terror of choosing the wrong punishment and it's miscarriage would lead to great humiliation and mockery amongst both prisoners and wardens.

Those two 'baptisms' were the most common of 'ceremonies' and about four of any five wardens experienced such a scorch in their first days at Sharonza Heights or any other prison.

The third and rarest of 'baptisms' was the lashing out prisoner. Nine out of ten of these cases were verbal abuse by a prisoner towards the newbie warden.

It's not the actual abuse that stresses and traumatized the newbie but the sudden situation in which a newbie had to ignore such behavior, keep it cool and react to the behavior in an appropriate way.

The catch in such a thing was that the protocol and recommendations from most commanders for reacting to verbal abuse is to ignore, smile or hush the raving prisoner with the right cool and calm from the newbie.

But it was difficult as suddenly the newbie is exposed to not one raving prisoner but a bunch of other prisoners observing, snarling, sniggering and mocking, who happened to have walked into the scene of 'baptism' and awaited the newbie's reaction.

Many newbies fall pray to aggressively reacting by counter-attack of verbal abuse, even issuing punishment, and there lies their downfall and disrespect amongst both prisoners and wardens.

But most newbies have their elderly aids by their side to give them confidence to better withstand this attack and pass the test successfully.

The rarest of 'baptism', the rarest of events in general, as rare as prisoners uproar and rebellion, is the violently lashing out prisoner who launch a physical attack at a prisoner. Even rarer are such attacks ending with actual physical damage to the newbie.

This rare-rarity is what was Pr. Shiro Kamui's 'baptism of fire'

* * *

For almost a month since he joined Sharonza's Men's Ward Pr. Shiro walked both prison and ward corridors regally, as if walking on air, detached from the buzzing prison around him.

He regarded both prisoners and fellow wardens with a certain cool and detachment as if he belonged neither here nor there.

With his fellow wardens he was polite, silent and careful, treading wisely between social bonds to keep himself from being overly engulfed by the tiny society in which he serves his duty.

He hardly befriended people and hardly made social connections. He was always kind and obedient, of course, and never patronized or scorned anyone around him, but he never bothered to make himself too friendly amongst them either.

Some said he acted like a princess and thought he was better then everyone else. Other said he is simply frightened and shocked and that this detachment is his shell to recede to when he is unable to tackle what his new environment hurled at him.

Sgt. Arisugawa had immediately adopted him as a younger brother and never saved his energy when it came to coaxing Kamui to sit by him at the lunch table, tell him more then the formally given report of his recent shift and generally spend some quality time with him.

He'd invite Kamui to bowling ball evenings with him and his gang of non-warden friends, where Kamui would sit aside silent and gentle, giggling and blushing, pouring out drinks for the lads while complimenting them for their healthy appetites and powerful bowling swings until Sorata's friends asked him why he brought a geisha over when he promised to introduce them to his new work buddy.

The kind sergeant bought him and the private a ticket to the first game of his favorite baseball team that season and spent the game half cheering for his team and half bickering with the smaller man over which team will win (it appears that Kamui was a fan of the enemy team, if only to test Sorata's patience and endurance) and learnt just how sharp tongued and witty this small, effeminate comrade can be when he wants to.

Kamui regarded Sorata as something to obey to, to laugh and smile at, to be very polite to and agree with on almost every subject, but in generally Kamui regarded Sorata as a big klutz with an even bigger mouth and the tiniest sense of tact on earth, almost as tiny as his brains.

When his comrades weren't looking Kamui would frown at them and glare at them behind their back, come up with clever comebacks for whatever half hearted insult about his freshness in the ward were turned at him and generally bitch and whine about his condition.

When his comrades weren't looking Kamui would scan the naked bodies around him in the common shower and make a careful and steady list of two things:

A list of good body traits to admire and spy through uniform shirts or pants. This list included body features to physically admire might the opportunity to seduce these traits' owner will arise.

The other list was of ugly or ridiculous body traits that Kamui kept a closer watch over might the need to pull this information in the time of argument with the traits' owners might come.

That was Pr. Shiro Kamui's treatment towards his comrades.

Towards prisoners Kamui was cold and commanding as if the spirit of a great leader possessed his frail body. One glare from those mauve fires of their new warden's and many of the well experienced and violent prisoners found themselves dumbstruck and fearful of what might come from the sweet and sensuous little mouth.

If a prisoner even began misbehaving or slackened in something, Pr. Shiro would scold him so, glare and rebuke him so, that not only the offending prisoner's blood chilled in his veins but the blood and veins of any prisoners (and often wardens) who were in the vicinity.

His commanding tone of speech was of a preacher promising fire and brimstone to his flock and as he gave it off he'd edge towards prisoner while glaring inferno directly at the frightened pair of offending eyes. Many heavily bodied and muscular prisoners found themselves suddenly backed up against a wall with cold sweat covering their bodies as they looked down at a thin, short, girlish boy with two big eyes for a stunt gun, glaring and barking at them.

All wardens had to admit that if things go on like this Pr. Shiro will be the first newbie in history who did not experience a true 'baptism of fire' simply because no one dared to provoke him.

It lasted for about a month until Pr. Shiro caught Shiyu Kusanagi staring at him at breakfast.

It was a very early hour, 05:30AM, the hour in which the prisoners working in the carpentering workshop, making tables and chairs for elementary schools to keep their minds off plotting and bickering amongst themselves, woke up to start their work's day.

Kusanagi was sleep-struck and still dizzy from ripping himself out of sweet sleep into this cruel cold world where his kind (sex criminals) were the lowest of the low and got the treatment they deserved from their fellow prisoners.

All he did was to stare at Kamui with his sleep dazed eyes and wonder if this is a male or female warden before him. Surely such delicate beauty must belong to the other sex, right?

Kamui looked so young and fresh and Kusanagi was very much lonely and depressed, not to mention not in his right mind due to the fact that he was half asleep and still in la-la-land in a sense.

Kamui spotted this and began calculating his reaction. If he will overlook it and let the man stare until his fellow wardens will pick it up then the jokes about how Kamui made a straight pedophile drool will last his comrades for the long cold winter.

Then again if he'll say something to Kusanagi for merely eating too slowly he'd embarrass himself, let alone draw his comrades to note the type of look in the prisoner's dreamy eyes.

Facing Kusanagi on the same table, absorbed in ravishing his breakfast of omelet, bread, olives and a tomato was the newly recruited to the workshop Monou Fuma who up until now found the process of eating the center of his world that morning.

Fuma liked the carpentering workshop for two reasons: one is that he used it to get some exercise done lifting the heaviest boards and keeping his fitness after noting the gym was usually occupied with thugs too big even for his size and devilish mind.

The second reason for Fuma's liking of the carpentering workshop was the fact that he used its utilities to create a nice little set of knifes which he hid on his body and all across his room with expertise only an old jailbird such as he had.

The carpentering workshop also allowed him to befriend the shy and timid Kusanagi who, despite his immense body and powerful structure (even the thugs in the gym feared him and left him undisturbed whenever he walked in to get some work done), suffered from a terribly low confidence, from the suffocating prison walls and from the broken heart of being an (almost) innocent citizen suddenly thrown into this Bedlam, this Sodom.

Fuma offered himself as an apprentice to Kusanagi who, despite remembering Fuma coming with him in the same armored police bus, was led to believe that Fuma saw him as a more experienced prisoner and thus held him highly in his mind. Kusanagi was immediately flattered and allowed the man to breach his self-defensive shell of shyness and silence.

The shy friendship of Kusanagi's was a weapon for Fuma who, in his quicksilver-like mind, began plotting the ways in which Kusanagi's force can come to his aid in brawls or perhaps even in the slowly weaving escape plan.

That morning, as Fuma noticed the longing stare in his new 'best friend's' eyes, the anarchistic youth did not act out of this façade to be Kusanagi's friend.

As he turned around slightly to see whom Kusanagi hung such looks at and recognized the new and beautiful warden his head boiled with anger from reasons other then scheming.

Kamui was pretending to talk to Sgt. Arisugawa, smiling sweetly at him. The darting glances and charming smiles he shot at the stunned and much grateful Kusanagi were what the merry conversation was started for.

When the sergeant turned to talk to another warden about something Kamui raised his gentle arms high in the air and stretched fully, thus making the fabric of his shirt cling to his delicate slim frame and made Kusanagi's mouth water a bit.

When the mauve gems turned to the prisoner and gave him a well knowing smile Kusanagi's 'best friend' snapped.

Like a storm, like a charging dragon, Fuma shot towards the newbie to give him his 'baptizing'.

With his quick and skilled right wrist, its skin decorated by a spiky tribal tattoo, he pulled a long sharp knife from the back of his pants and ran it deep into Kamui's right shin.

The knife was so sharp, so long and Kamui's shin so slim, that the blade ran from one end to the other and became stuck into the concrete of the wall Kamui was knocked back at.

A sharp, high pitched, coarse scream of pain echoed through the somber hall where the winter's morning chill still frowned down upon those who occupied it.

Sgt. Arisugawa turned sharply, pulling his stunt gun instinctively and saw the young confident underling pinned to a wall by one knife, while witnessing the second pinning.

Leering over the small man's body, sniggering and glaring, Fuma pulled out a second long knife and pinned Kamui's left hand to the concrete.

Kamui screamed again, only this time his voice failed him, leaving him to hiss and cough blood.

"The prettiest warden in Shinzona, glaring and bitching at everyone," Fuma hissed into Kamui's neck as he licked the splattered blood drops from the delicate white neck. "See how almighty you are now bitch."

The electric blow from Sorata's shocker came seconds afterwards but not before Fuma left the two arches of his teeth marks into Kamui's delicate alabaster skin.

* * *

Fuma was caught, beaten, dragged, kicking and swearing, down to spend the next month in confinement.

As he was flung violently into his half glass, half iron cell a few good meters from Sakurazuka Seishiro's glass cage, Fuma managed to send a victorious snigger to his new neighbor who in return turned his eye carelessly back to the book he was reading.

With many grunts and swears, Fuma dragged his aching body to sit on the floor and began wiping the blood from his temple, his split lips and his arm where his own knife was accidentally used against him.

Then he threw his head back and laughed so powerfully he disturbed his neighbor and gained a calm "Do try to be quiet please" from the assassin.

Fuma glared at the regal man in his glass room.

Seishiro glared back and smiled sweetly.

Fuma scanned himself; he was shirtless as the item was used as a towel and a bandage for his wounds. He smiled and aimed a meaningful stare at the man with the neat suit and mysterious dark air.

Seishiro chuckled softly. "You have two missing teeth, your mouth is bloody and swollen, there's a large purple bruise almost completely closing one of your eyes and the rest of you is dirty and bloody, but still you think you can give me that 'come hither' look?" He chuckled once more. Venom dripping like acid. "Silly boy."

Fuma snarled; blood trickled from the edge of his lip. It made him turn his head in shame from his neighbor.

* * *

Kamui was rushed to the infirmary and spent the rest of the day there, a day he passed in complete silence, his eyes burning, his skin pale and his whole attire saying 'murder' and 'shame'.

It was obvious that this was by far the cruelest and harshest 'baptism' ceremony any warden in Sharonza's history ever went through.

His comrades and commanders gave him their mercy and praise for withstanding everything so bravely.

Kamui tried not to spit in their faces and yell at them that screaming out was not something he calls 'withstanding everything so bravely' and that right now he could happily use one of that damn devil's knifes to carry out seppuku.

As he recovered, his comrades could tell that the youthful man was secretly plotting a way to get back at the man who attacked him.

* * *

No one in Sharonza Heights prison, no, in the whole world loved Pr. Shiro Kamui more then Lt. Segawa Keiichi.

The young man of twenty one, hardly the wisest of men in the ways of life and the ones living it before his enrolment to police academy, despite the missing knowledge filled to the brim during his service, was a true hearted, kind, loving, innocent (as much as possible) cheerful young man.

He won his ranks due to loyalty and excellent service. Nobody around that prison, or in the other prisons where his academy buddies served, could say a single bad thing about him.

The big beautifully shaped mauve eyes, the perfect creamy alabaster skin and the soft raven locks so preciously framing Kamui's face like an artist' picture hit Keiichi like a bullet to the head (or heart in this case) and he fell, helpless and hopeless, at the delicate small feet of the prison's new recruit.

The short period in which the Lieutenant courted the private was a time of focused energy and blasts of hope with every move Keiichi made towards the breathtaking young man.

After an afternoon of careful calculation on the porch of his humble one room flat at the suburbs of the sleepy town nearest to Sharonza Heights, Kamui decided to take his third-in-command's offers on.

No one in Sharonza prison, no, in the whole world was the happiest as the brave lieutenant when Kamui blushingly agreed to go on a date with him, blushingly kissed him back goodnight, asked him up for coffee etc.

Quaking and blushing, sweating and mumbling, Lt. Segawa entered Cp. Aoki's office to confess his deeds with his underling, expecting to hear a long raving speech about how wrong it all was really.

The kind Captain, who was busy sorting out a clumsy anniversary gift for his wife (a fancy album with all their pictures from their first dates and up to their little girl's latest birthday party) merely smiled at him warmly, shook his hand along with a strong clap to his shoulder and wished him a happy relationship.

"So…you're not angry sir?" Keiichi apologized, stunned at this lightheadedness from his chief.

"Good heavens man no, why would I?"

"Uh…well…"

"Ah!" Seiichiro darted a suddenly sharp as pricks pair of eyes behind their slightly dusty enlarging lenses before retrieving the pair, dull now and mindless as before, back to the album. "You think I will scold you for choosing a man to court?"

Keiichi tried not to move a muscle might he topple himself down the bottomless pit on which's edge he placed himself by bringing the subject up in the first place.

"I think it's quite alright Keiichi-kun, if I may call you that because I kind of see you as a son…no, a cousin, like my cousin Daisuke, god bless his soul. Besides you're not the only one here I should think…if I'm not mistaken our other lieutenant is into the same business and I practically read the letters printed on Shiro's forehead that he's into it as well….no no no no dear boy, whatever makes you happy."

With that Cp. Aoki gave his second officer a look which meant 'please leave me alone; this damn task is doing my head in and I need every ounce of concentration to get it even halfway right. Please.'

Keiichi bowed, saluted (two things he hadn't done since his first day in the prison) and walked out of the office feeling a ton lighter.

To Pr. Kamui, Lt. Keiichi was nothing but convenient. When he needed to arrange himself a slightly saner shift time; he turned to the lovesick man. When he lost his personal teargas spray can and faced trial might he confess it; he turned (teary eyed and hysterical at first, then sweet and seductive once his will was carried out) to the poor infatuated officer.

He only thought about Keiichi once when the man kindly rejected his third seduction attempt claiming he wanted to deepen the relationship. Kamui shrugged after the entire five second of thought he spent on the matter and walked to his small flat's tiny refrigerator to fetch himself some beer forgetting all about it.

Lt. Segawa stared at Pr. Shiro now trying to make his mind up about the request his seemingly loving underling gave him.

"I don't know Kamui…it's kind of a dangerous shift…"

Kamui cocked his head sideways and made a tiny adorable frown to the bridge of his nose "But Keiiiiiiichiiiii," he cooed sweetly once away from the prisoners around them. "I'll have to do a shift like that eventually… why can't I do it today?"

"Why won't you have that first shift once…once…once…"

"Once Monou-bastard won't be there?"

"Once there will be less highly dangerous prisoners there is what I meant to say. I mean goodness Kamui." The back of his fingers ran along the smoothest of skins, reaching the silkiest and blackest of hairs at the side of the private's face. "Sakurazuka is enough of a menace, why must you have a shift there, and the first of that, when the devil who hurt you is there as well? Why, you've only just returned from your sick leave."

"Keiiichiiiiiiiiiii."

"Oh…but…"

"Keiiiiiiiiiichiiiiiiiiiii." A single delicate long white tiny hand reached out and landed on Keiichi's chest where his heart was. Two huge violet gems gazed up innocently, catching the simple neon lights above them and scattering them around the large irises in million tiny sparkling diamonds.

"Uh…okay…I guess…but Lt. Sumeragi will be upset because he got the work schedule of this week all planned out and…"

"Who is supposed to do that shift?"

"Well, me but…."

"Then we'll switch places, how much of a schedule disruption could that be?"

Keiichi hung his head and shrugged. He collected the fragile body into his arms and rained a few kisses on the silken sable locks.

Smugly, Kamui marched down into the basement floor and the High Security ward, his steps light and merry.

He discharged Corp. Tojo, threw a canceling gaze at the prisoner in the glass cage (who, despite himself, could not help hanging his seeing eyes on the wonderful features until his better behavior caught up with him) and ignored the other prisoner as he walked up to the hidden cabinet for emergency cases.

He opened the great steel locker, as black as his hair, as dark as Fuma's heart, as somber as Lt. Subaru's wondering mind, and took a moment of gasping awe to observe the treasures within it.

Oh how many toys Corp. Tojo gave Pr. Shiro as he finished his shift and left the locker's key in the younger warden's hands!

The black wonder box, twice Kamui's size in height and three times bigger in width, was brimful with toys made to hurt, disarm, injure, control and subdue a rebelling and/or raging prisoner.

Kamui licked his lips, his eyes darting here and there over shiny metal, warning signs, scolding safety procedures and glaring yellow 'may be toxic if digested' marks.

He giggled heartedly until the giggle became a full-fledged laughter luckily not reaching the ears of the ward's two prisoners with the divine help of miraculous counter-echoing in the room Kamui stood.

Honestly gasping, Kamui reached out two slim fingers and ran their tips (not without a great deal of awe and worship's quivering) down the long cold cylinder of a club.

A large grin spread like a lazy cat on his lips as he reached out the other hand. Like Arthur as he received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, Kamui dislodged the club from its hang.

With the club almost half his height in hand, Kamui walked back to the two calls, swinging the heavy metal rod as if it were an innocent walking stick.

Placing the club's edge on the floor under his two neatly placed palms at its butt, Kamui stood before Fuma's cell unleashing his worse of glares at the man inside.

Monou Fuma stood in the middle of his cell and stared down at the little man filled with great malice staring up at him.

Sakurazuka Seishiro stopped fooling himself by pretending to be beyond this small show of warden corruption and brutality, and observed the play before his eyes impatiently awaiting the next act.

He really wouldn't give a damn about such acts, but this play's unusual actors robbed him of his will to fight back his curiosity.

Corp. Tojo, as he handed command over the two prisoners to Pr. Shiro, also handed the young man a key to Fuma's cell.

Kamui used it now, slowly swinging the door open and stepping into the cell regally.

Fuma took a step back and launched a glaring attack at the new man in his domain.

Kamui took a step forward and snarled maliciously at the bigger man.

The vicious club shone electric blue under the neon light through the thick bulletproof glass of Fuma's fully shut cell door.

Kamui took another step forwards and the distance between them narrowed to but a few inches.

Fuma looked down at him with hell's fire in his eyes, preparing to attack or defend at the first sign of his opponent's next move.

Seishiro repressed a need to shout "Come on guys, do something already" at the two.

Fuma's arms shot forward, his back arched, his lips locking on Kamui's for a passionate and heart-consuming kiss.

They stayed locked like that for almost half an hour, burning away months of longing, need and love they've repressed during the time Kamui spent in police academy to become a warden and Fuma spent in court getting trialed on the way to become a prisoner.

After clawing their way out of the gutter where they grew as neighbors in the shadiest of Japan's slums, after forging a bond stronger then steel and diamond with acts of felony and bloodshed, after uniting in soul, mind and body on as many occasions as they could since their physical development allowed them to do so, long times of separation from each other took it's toll on their sanity.

Now they were gaining it back by taking what's theirs from each other as forcefully and passionately as possible.

Seishiro, who's mind was so consumed by the fascinating play before him, snapped back to fully comprehend something when he noticed an interesting detail:

The seemingly meaningless spiky tribal tattoos on each of Fuma's wrists joined together to a matching tattoo on Kamui's lower back as the bigger man grabbed the younger's naked behind in the heat of their acts.

Fuma's left wrist's tattoo made his wrists create an intricate tribal dragon when he brought them together, but only Kamui's body made the Black Dragon complete (3).

* * *

Unlike Kamui, Fuma remained loyal to his other-side-of-the-bars lover.

Despite many attempts from many fellow prisoners, both of the submissive type and the aggressive type, he did not get intimate with anyone but Kamui during his solitary confinement times.

He loathed any prisoner who glanced at Kamui with a bit of sexual interest and would often use his growing collection of knifes to inflict a terrible, often crippling, injuries on the offenders.

The only thing that kept him from murdering Lt. Segawa and hurling himself into life sentence was the opportunity to twist the brave officer's love into cooperation at escape's time.

He still loathed the man and glared fire at him whenever he could. He enjoyed jumping behind corners whenever the officer would patrol the ward and spook the man slightly.

Keiichi suspected nothing but a rather keen taste for sadistic pranks Fuma had, which he had.

Whenever he found an opportunity to gather something sharp or with the potential to become sharp enough to do harm he'd scoop it up, which often reduced him to rummage through garbage bins. His free time was almost completely consumed with the making of these knifes and small daggers. It earned him a reputation of a psycho and kept the troublemakers and warmongers off his back.

He tightened his bonds with any prisoner who gave him the impression of a hidden rebel or an easily controllable able-bodied thug.

Those would usually shun him or try to beat him up, encounters Fuma squeezed out of due to agility and resourcefulness only a streetwise, prison-wise man such as himself had.

His only ally was the baffled and much grateful Kusanagi who was rescued once from a heavy imprisoned Yakuza member's attack by Fuma. The anarchist claimed to have Kusanagi on his posse and immediately offered the gangsters a free doze of the latest narcotics Kamui smuggled him as a peace offering and a hint that if they hurt Kusanagi they'll bite the hand feeding them.

He won a second ally as Kigai Yutu walked into his cell one fine morning, but that is the stuff of another chapter.

* * *

Monou Fuma ended up in the basement floor on three other occasions:

One after he flipped a kitchen table to bury a prisoner who taunted him about the amount of hair gel he uses under it.

One after he was caught making a knife in the workshop (his fifth since the incident with Kamui which led to all his knifes confiscated) after which he was removed from the workshop to kitchen duties. It didn't stop his little one-man knife-making workshop, it only served to teach him how to avoid getting caught in Sharonza.

One after he was caught dealing light narcotics to fellow prisoners.

On the first of these three imprisonments Seishiro and Fuma ran a fluent dialog about the various details in young Fuma's criminal life (he seemed to have no other life but the ones of mischief and wrongdoing).

On the second Fuma used Sgt. Arisugawa's stomach disruption-induced long toilet break to amuse Seishiro with an act of full-fledged exhibitionism solo flight which the sorcerer regarded with the same careless eyes as before but clapped at the end of which.

On the third Fuma was far too busy observing the waif of a green-eyed lieutenant's conversation with his neighbor to do wrong.

After Lt. Sumeragi's shift came Kamui's and by then Fuma had formed a small plan.

"Oi, Sakurazuka-san."

"…."

"I said oi! Sakurazuka-san!"

"You are so eloquent my dear friend," the jailed sorcerer cooed at the young man over the rims of his plastic teacup.

"Yea yeah, whatever. Remember that thing you said about using magic do to crime and stuff, whatcha-call-it onm-what?"

"Onmyoujitsu…"

"Yeah, that…oh put some clothes on Kamui, I can't concentrate."

Kamui glared but hurried his shirt's buttoning smiling contently to himself.

"So…Sakurazuka-san, do you still remember any spells?"

Seishiro placed his teacup down on the glass table and straightened a powerfully testing gaze at the young prisoner.

"What kind of spells?" he asked once a powerful, resolved and meaningful gaze answered his stare.

"Something that can, say, break walls, just for example that is…"

Seishiro smiled widely, exposing his immaculately white teeth (the wonders of being forced to quit smoking does to one's nicotine-yellow fangs).

"There is a spell such as that. Only there are two problems with it."

"Problems? I don't like problems when I'm plotting an escape from prison."

Seishiro snickered; the young these days are so impatient. "The biggest problem is that I cannot show you the spell; I have to write it and," he turned around to gesture for his incompetent cell, "I have no means to do so."

"Why?"

"Because it's a symbol one must draw on the wall in need of ridding and I don't have a pen, pencil etc., nor paper to draw it for you."

Fuma mused for a while.

He turned to Kamui. "Ne, precious, copy the symbol down to a piece of paper for me will ya?"

Kamui smiled and nodded. He finished the last touches to bring his uniforms back to their former appearance and walked out of the cell.

He observed the trail Seishiro traced on the glass of his cell's wall and jotted it down on a piece of paper he fished from the warden's post's desk.

He repeated the process until Seishiro nodded at him that the symbol was perfectly copied.

"Theirs is a second problem Fuma-kun."

"Don't call me that. Thank you, precious." Fuma absorbed himself in the passionate kiss he used to thank his lover as the younger man handed him the paper with the symbol on it.

"Are you listening Fuma-kun?"

"Yes, I am now, what's the problem?"

"The symbol has to be made with blood, freshly drawn blood. The deeper the injury the blood was drawn from the stronger the spell. If the blood will be from a freshly killed virgin woman the spell will cause an explosion strong enough to knock down a few walls."

As he spoke Seishiro's voice was even and cool as icy wind, his gaze steady and emotionless, as if he was a teacher and Fuma a pupil in science class.

"Ah." Fuma's eyes glinted with bloodlust; his toothy grin dripping of an impatient need to do harm. "That is not a problem at all Sakurazuka-san."

Kamui reflected Fuma's smile.

(tbc)

* * *

(1) a habit stressed into newbie soldiers in the IDF once finishing basic training and/or the course of their specific service (like in my case) and in any other formal public ceremony. I put it in because it's a good way of getting the 'newbie' notion through….I think so anyways.

(2) another IDF tradition. Or is it a general disease within militaries wherever they'd be?

(3)yes I like writing about tattoos, yes I like it because I have a few of my own, no I do NOT like Zorin thank-you-very-much.


	5. Part 5

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. the Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here. Pochi Project was something I saw on Oz. the song belongs to The Cure.

**Author's notes: **the ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters who in X are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

**Author's Thanks: **to my beta Kitsunia.To R chan from (oh yes they get dangerously close to each other and guess what, this chapter you'll finally see what happened in the basement all this time!), to Nancy of (thank you!), Hikari Black from (thank you! You'll get some of the Hokuto-ness in this chapter), Stapler of (ah the basement….buhahahahaha) and to Elf Asato who commented on my Lj (Kamui's not a bitch, he's a slut, there's a difference. Ah what conversation you ask? Well, this chapter will answer that question ne?)

**Author's notes: **ah, finally the S/S chapter you've all been waiting for. Tee hee. DDR music rocks my world, oh the shame, the shame. And this chapter's S/S goodness is dedicated to the lovely Whitesakura.

**Warning: **bad, bad, dirty language and mild lime.

* * *

**Part 5 **

"Subaru…Subaru…Subaru…_Subaru_!"

Subaru blinked the daydream away and looked up at his sister.

Hokuto was already in her uniforms, house key in hand, hands on her hips and an impatient foot tapping the floor rhythmically. "You aren't even half ready for work and we've only got ten more minutes before we need to leave"

"Ah…sorry, I didn't notice." He shot to his feet, emptying his tea cup as he ran from the kitchen to the bathroom and locking the door behind him as he prepared the toothbrush.

Hokuto sighed and picked up the cup from the shelf where her brother left it lodged. If it weren't for her Subaru would have probably forgotten himself in the middle of a zebra crossing and would get himself killed by a car ages ago.

Seriously, it felt like she was dragging her brother by the hand all her life instead of growing besides him like twins should.

Since they joined the warden police it had only gotten worse. Subaru used to be the quiet type who would leap to action in the right moment, the guy with enough brains but a stoic behaviour to keep it from bursting as arrogance, the dreaming poet type.

And he still is; only now he's too quiet, too stoic, and too dreamy.

Hokuto wondered what had happened to her brother that would make him slowly drown himself in this dark depression.

No, she knew what made him drown in the depression. Subaru was gay and he was afraid of admitting it to anyone or showing it to a potential boyfriend.

She tried telling him that it was okay by her and that if anyone so much as look at him the wrong way he should ignore them. But Subaru didn't listen, or listened and forgot about it the next moment.

She could see him scanning the handsome men walking past them with sad longing eyes but never getting up to do anything about it.

She dragged him to a gay club once but Subaru screamed the first time someone touched him. He _screamed_. She heard him from across the room (where a lovely witty woman made her doubt her own sexual tendencies) and couldn't believe it.

What made him cringe from a loving touch? What made him fear the acceptance of the one thing that could make him happy?

She knew the answer to that too. He had the self-esteem of an abused wife. Why? She never knew.

No, she knew that as well. Late at night when she couldn't sleep and the only thing left for her brain to do was to dig deep into her soul, she knew. Whenever she looked at old pictures of the two of them, she knew.

She was the lively one, the one blooming with self-confidence, the active, and the loud. He was the shy one, the stoic, and the gloomy one. They completed each other, which was nice, like Ying and Yang.

That would make sense if they were lovers but they weren't. They were twins and if she has all the energy and he lacks it then she stole it from him. She floated by him in their mother's womb and sucked all the life out of him like a mosquito, like a vampire.

Was that why she insisted upon making him live his life to the fullest? Because she was trying to clear her conscience?

Subaru emerged from the bathroom, uniforms on, hair brushed, shoes on.

"You need to shave Subaru."

He ran his long delicate fingers on his cheek and winced. "It's not that obvious is it?"

"I don't know, I wouldn't mind, Karen-chan is _my_ commander."

Subaru shot back to the bathroom. Captain Aoki was not someone you can test the patience of over such matters.

"Make it snappy Subaru, we're almost late."

What will it take to light a spark in her brother?

* * *

Of course it wasn't as bad as Hokuto imagined it.

Subaru did not see himself as devoid of life, as too stoic or sad, or even miserable. He saw himself as…well…

He never bothered to think of himself that much really. He drifted wherever life lead him and did what people told him. That's it.

He knew he was lonely whenever Hokuto said, "Goodbye! Don't stay up waiting for me, ohohohoho!" When she went out to a party at Saturday night. He knew he was empty whenever she babbled about the latest boyfriend and he could only listen instead of share.

He drifted through life because he couldn't find something to hold on to and stable himself. Nothing was important enough to pay that kind of attention to. Nothing was special.

Sure, he liked the handsome boys walking past him, but he never found in himself the will to get up and start a conversation because it didn't seem worth the bother.

He was comfortable in his little bubble, untouched and undisturbed. He went to sleep in his own time, he sat by the computer in his hours, watched whatever he wanted on the television and that was quite enough for him.

The man who touched him in that humiliating gay club only proved to him that his bubble feels painful to burst.

To walk over to someone and ask them out is a risk; what if they'll say no? What if they'll take him on as a sex toy and nothing more? What if it'll end in tears?

Subaru dug himself so deep into his comfortable little den that it almost collapsed on him, making it his tomb.

He was like the famous hobbit that sat comfortably in his house refusing to get out.

Like that character, all Subaru need was a wizard to give him a slight nudge out of the door, into adventure and finally into the dragon's lair.

* * *

"Ne, Lt. Sumeragi, I need to talk to you about something for a minute."

He placed a cigarette between his lips and followed Sgt. Sorata to the smoking corner where the underling would give him the important message.

"Lt. Segawa came down with an awful flue and we ran out of officers to watch the guy you know?"

Subaru nodded. He had to have his first shift in the basement sometime didn't he?

"I see, that's fine. My shift starts now?"

"Yeah, Lt. Segawa tried to go down to the basement but he fainted from the fever, you know how hardworking he is, he didn't succumb to the disease until it came and grabbed him real hard!"

"I see."

"So, it should be real easy and you can smoke there you know."

"Very well. Goodbye then Sgt." he said before he walked down the steps to the basement.

Sorata gave him a lazy solute and scurried off to whatever other business he had.

Subaru finished his cigarette, emptied his teacup and left it on a random table he found on his way to the basement.

As he walked down the stairs to the underground ward he noted the strange silence around him. Not just around him, in his head too. The calm before the storm.

As he opened the door to the basement the sounds of music broke the silence.

Pr. Saiki was a nervous young man, so constantly agitated and neurotic that behind his back they called him Woody Allen. When he was extremely nervous he'd fidget with the nearby radio, CD or MP3 player, and shoot sounds into the air.

When there weren't any of those around he'd hum, or sing softly (and horribly; he was criminally tone-deaf) or tap a table (or wall or chair or a nearby coworker's shoulder) with his fingers. Anything for some background noise.

What he had to distract himself from with sounds, no one ever knew, and he refused to tell.

Maybe Kotori would manage to coax it out of him. There was a rumor that he is her biggest project. But rumors are only rumors.

Saiki turned the music so loud Subaru had to shout at him to silence it. Not because he was angry with the private but because it was the only way to be heard over the loud music. It wasn't even music really; the reception in the basement was so bad that half of the sounds were static white noise.

Subaru cringed at the sound of his own voice as Saiki finally turned the radio off and his shouts were heard clearly.

"Sorry sir." The private saluted. "He's all yours." Saiki leaped to his feet from his chair (which he placed with his back to Sakurazuka's cell) and retreated from his stand.

"Pr. Saiki."

"…Y-yes sir?"

"Next time you're in a shift here you will not turn your back to the prisoner, you will keep your eye on him; that is your role in this sort of shifts."

"But sir I was only here for the few minutes until they'll find a replacement for Keiichi…oh…they did find a replacement right? You didn't come down here to tell me to stay here right?"

Saiki was sweating, his fingers fidgeting in the air madly.

Subaru's voice was cold as ice, calm, monotonous and emotionless. "It doesn't matter how long you are to stay here, you will do your duty on its best side. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Very well. Now go upstairs, I will take over for now."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." As he climbed up the stairs Subaru could still hear him mutter to himself of how this place gave him the creeps and that damned wizard made his stomach turn. On and on he went until the door was shut.

Subaru would have recommended Cp. Aoki to send pr. Saiki to a paid leave for a few days or months or years due to his slight mental incapability if he wasn't so uncertain of his own normality.

Then the basement around him sunk in and the thoughts disappeared.

"_When you enter a shift with Sakurazuka you have to bear in mind that he is something completely different then anything you've ever known. Treat him with respect and he will treat you with respect._"

Subaru shuddered.

He could feel the man's eyes on him.

Slowly, reluctantly, he turned his head to return the look.

The tall dark man stood in his cell to his right, hands in his pants' pockets, a slackened stance, empty expression. Eyes fiercely locked on him.

Subaru tore his gaze off of the prisoner. He walked over to his cubicle and sat down. Brewing himself a cup of coffee, he lit a cigarette. He smoked it while drinking his coffee.

He smoked another cigarette two hours later.

He flipped through some of the magazines scattered on the table. He fumbled with the radio until he found a stable station that played decent music.

He smoked another cigarette two hours later.

The radio began playing sunset time music, which was pleasant, and Subaru's eyes started slipping to the ceiling to find something to occupy his mind.

He smoked his last cigarette for that shift two hours later.

Second Lt. Magami, the only woman in the men's ward, who came to man the next shift complained about the thick smoke in the basement as she entered the large hall.

All those cigarettes and Subaru forgot to open the window.

He apologized and got up to leave.

This wasn't so bad you know, this whole guarding 'the Sakurazuka beast'. It was a piece of cake in fact. He didn't know why so many people get agitated from the thought of doing that shift. Maybe they're afraid of him because of what he's done to get himself in a cell. Nonsense.

Subaru walked past the work chart and stopped. He turned to the wall and the large chart hung on it, thoughts slowly stirring in his mind.

If it were so easy, why wouldn't he do it more?

He stared at the names under the shifts at the basement. Saiki and Segawa.

Saiki was nuts. He'll talk to his commander and give the poor boy a few leaves. That'll make room in the chart.

Segawa was ill; he needed a good rest. That'd make more room.

Taking the eraser in his hand, Subaru began clearing out the black marker kanji from the white plastic board. He switched the names around a bit so that no one will end up in the basement after a whole shift upstairs and no one will have that shift before going home.

He left four holes unmanned in the chart. He would write his name in those, as soon as the flashes would stop dancing before his eyes. Flashes of the shift he just had.

_His…eyes…were…on…him…non-stop. _

They never left him. They never moved. _He_ never moved. He just stood there and stared at him without moving for eight straight hours.

And when Subaru turned around a little to shoot a last glance at the prisoner he caught the sight of a tiny amused grin on Sakurazuka's face.

Or was it a predatory snarl?

Maybe an affectionate warm smile?

It could have easily been a canceling, mocking smirk.

What was up with that? His heart is beating in his chest wildly.

He took the black marker and wrote his name in the four empty boxes.

Those eyes haunted him in his dreams for the first time that night.

* * *

If there's one thing Subaru hated more then anything, shopping was it.

The thing he hated the most after that is when his sister nagged him not to smoke.

He'd let her have her way with him in the shops but when it was time to pay he left his credit card with her and fled out to try and get a few drafts of nicotine.

Hokuto always spotted him and finished the paying and packing as quickly as possible.

By the end of the shopping spree Subaru had such a headache he thought his eyes were going to pop out of his head.

"Ah! Shall we check out that shop?"

"No Hokuto-chan, please no."

"Aw, but there are really nice things there…"

"I said no, please Hokuto-chan."

"But we only got you five pairs of pants and ten shirts."

"And _that's_ not enough?"

"Hell no Subaru! You're forgetting that…."

"That I have to be back at Sharonza in three more hours?"

"…Three more hours Subaru…?"

"One hour of driving, one hour for the making and eating of lunch."

"Ah, that leaves you with an extra hour, no excuse for you now, eh?"

Subaru took a deep breath and tried to calm the buzzing between his ears.

"Hokuto-chan, I might have some paper work in the office…"

"Do it during your shift. You're in the basement today aren't you?"

"I'm not supposed to be distracted by anything during my shifts Hokuto-chan! Especially not during the basement ones!"

"Subaruuuuu."

"Hokuto-chan, **_enough_**!"

His sister blinked at him. He never yelled at her, not since they were children anyway and even then it was only playfully.

"What the…?"

"That's what you get when you deprive a man of his precious cigarettes okay?" He tore the shopping bags from her hand and began stomping his way back to their home.

"Well you shouldn't smoke anyway! You aught to thank me for helping you kick the habit," she screamed after him, enraged.

Just as angry, he spun around and barked; "_When I'll want to quit the cigarettes, Hokuto, I'll quit by myself, **in my own time**_!"

He left her dumbstruck in the street, people passing by her shooting short glances at the tiny soap opera for free.

She wanted to be mad at him but she couldn't help feeling a little happy that he showed enough emotion and care to do what he just did. Then again, if only it was for anything but those damn cigarettes.

She huffed and stomped her way back home, hoping to catch a hold of him there and nag him some more.

He burned his food and had to remake it while watching it carefully, which forced him to be inside the house where he couldn't smoke. When he finished making the food and eating it he only had time to dress and get out of the house if he's going to have an extra paperwork's hour.

Then there was a traffic jam on the way to Sharonza and Subaru had to waste his precious extra time on the road. He couldn't smoke in the car because it belonged to both him and Hokuto and she'd wring his neck if he smoked in it.

And so he arrived to his basement shift after almost nine hours of no smoking.

As soon as he entered the basement and discharged Sc. Lt. Magami from her shift, Subaru lit a cigarette and took a deep breath.

He closed his eyes and tilted his head backwards, taking another draft. And another. The sudden nicotine doze made his head dizzy like his first days of smoking. A pleasant smile spread lazily on his lips.

"May I have one?"

The deep, rich, velvety voice cut through Subaru's calm like a blade in the night.

He flinched and whipped his head to the glass cage.

Seishiro stood there just like he did yesterday and smirked pleasantly at him. In the time since yesterday's shift Subaru managed to forget just how handsome the prisoner was. And how striking were his eyes, for good and for bad.

Subaru caught himself and stiffened his stance. "You are not allowed to have anything burning in your cell, and that includes cigarettes."

Seishiro's face darkened.

It wasn't the 'you bastard' kind of darkening, it was the 'oh…damn…aw man' kind of darkening and it caught Subaru off guard.

"I-I'm very sorry." Subaru hurried to hide behind his cubicle's table and pretended his heart didn't skip a beat when he saw those sad eyes.

He didn't smoke for the rest of the shift, out of kindness.

Seishiro did not remove his eyes from him. He sat to read a book while shooting long glances at Subaru, he combed his hair and shaved, press-ironed his jackets and shirts (with a special heat-less roll using some complicated chemical process Aoki was thankful to get and shut Seishiro up with), folded his laundry, all while staring at Subaru every few minutes with a small amused smile.

Subaru did not tare his eyes off the man. The tiny chores he occupied himself with in his cage fascinated him to no end. He never thought the proud and threatening hidden dark wizard in their basement could be so…human.

In his dreams that night he woke up in a clear sunny Sunday morning and found Seishiro doing their laundry in the kitchen. The air smelled of warm fabric and laundry softener. There was a tray covered by sweet little cupcakes on the table. Seishiro wore a loose t-shirt and a pair of worn sports pants.

When Subaru woke up he had a sweet smile on his lips; he still had the picture of Seishiro in fuzzy crocodile slippers of the dreamscape flickering before his eyes.

The next shift Seishiro asked for a cigarette again. Subaru refused him again with the same speech.

"Ah, I see" was all the assassin said and turned his back to his warden. He leaned on the glass wall and placed a palm on his forehead.

Subaru caught the sight of his face reflecting off the bathroom mirror in the cage. He took an involuntary step forward, his cigarette hand reaching out to the cage. He snapped out of it almost immediately and retreated to his cubicle where he finished his cigarette and pretended to do his paperwork.

It was an evening shift and Seishiro was organizing himself for bath time.

Subaru followed him eagerly as he prepared his towel, soap and a mysterious white and mauve bottle (a moisturizing lotion actually, Seishiro liked his skin pampered and soft), all neatly folded with his pajamas.

Subaru buried his eyes in the neglected paperwork as Seishiro drew the darkened shower room' door to a close.

His face was afire, his heart raced madly, but he chose to see it as the result of awkwardness at this forced intimacy.

His eyes shot to the shower door every five seconds.

Seishiro turned the little light bulb above his bathroom mirror on and the shadow of his naked figure became clear to his warden's hungry eyes.

Breathing was difficult for Subaru, his head was dizzy, and his crotch ached longingly. He was sweating and trembling.

He was never this close to another man before, not with such tension in the air, not such a handsome man.

When he walked out of the shower Seishiro could practically read Subaru's thoughts word by word from the almost painful look in his beautiful large green eyes. He bit down of a smirk and walked out wearing nothing but his pajama boxers while lazily dabbing his hair from the last drops of water.

There were drops of water all down his broad muscular torso, gathering to tiny rivulets on his carved abdomen.

Subaru's breath hitched. He only blinked when his eyes met Seishiro's teasing ones. The playful smirk on the prisoner's lips made him angry with himself as well as excited as a little boy.

That night as he closed his eyes and saw Seishiro he was not asleep. He was wide-awake, attending to his needs while constantly bashing himself for doing it.

When he played that memory too much he thought about the sight of Seishiro doing his little weightlifting and how his t-shirt clung to his sweaty body.

* * *

The next shift was an evening one as well. Subaru found that the _idea_ made him dizzy, as he caught the sight of his name on the work chart.

"Is everything alright St. Subaru?" Aoki's voice was soft and worried.

Subaru was so surprised by the man's sudden appearance while he's in such a delicate state that he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Ah, sorry to have frightened you Subaru-san." Aoki's glasses were dusty again, which only served to make him more pathetic to look at with his shiny ranks and well-ironed uniforms.

"I-I'm fine, thank you sir."

"Uh-huh…" Aoki scanned the work chart quickly. "My, it seems you've been stationed in the basement a lot this week."

"Oh, that's alright, really it is sir."

Aoki gave him a surprised look. "Are you sure lieutenant? The basement shifts can be quite grinding."

"I'm fine sir, thank you for your concern."

It only served to make his commander even more worried.

Subaru forced a smile and shrugged. "It gives me time to run over paperwork that doesn't need too much concentration and that way when I'm done I can really sit to work on the heavy stuff without trifles getting in my way."

"Ah, well, that's good spirit then." The captain patted Subaru on the shoulder friendly and walked into his office.

Subaru sighed deeply. He needed a cigarette.

When he opened the door to the basement he could hear loud banging noises from the inside. It sounded like gunshots.

Storming into the ward, he pulled his stunt gun and club and hid behind a corner just before the greater hall. By then another three bangs shot into the air.

As he shot a glace behind the corner he almost cried out at the sight of the bang's reason.

Pr. Shiro was rocking back and forth on the cubicle's chair, which he poised rather dangerously on it's rear legs, and was hurling a bouncy plastic ball at Seishiro's cage wall. Quite powerfully too.

Seishiro, on his behalf, sat to his little coffee table and pretended to be reading a book while slowly stroking his temples with his hand, who's arm he leaned on the table as if to create a barrier between him and the banging wall.

"_Private Shiro Kamui, what **are** you doing_?" Subaru stormed into the room, sheathing his club and stun gun.

The ball bounced back from the glass wall one last time. It flew right back towards Kamui who did not catch it this time only moved sideways to avoid it. It bounced on the ground behind the cubicle's table, bounced off the wall, then at the desk, then finally lost its energy and rolled on the floor until it came to a stop.

Subaru stood before the private, shaking with anger, trying to burn holes into the young man's forehead with his glare.

"He mentioned something particularly nasty about my ass," Kamui spat venomously, more at the prisoner then at his superior.

"That, _in no way_, is an excuse for such behavior!" Subaru was almost shouting, enraged more then he cared to admit.

"But he made a nasty comment," Kamui fired back, sounding like the child he appeared to be. "It was sexual harassment sir!"

"_Sexual harassment no less._" Subaru threw his hands in the air hopelessly. "And what exactly makes you think that you're…" he stopped before he'll make an even bigger mess of it then it already is.

"That I'm his type," Kamui chirped, a sneaky, bitchy glint in his eyes.

Subaru tore his gaze away from the intense mauve fire, choosing to storm over to the cubical and get the boy out of there as quickly as possible. "I will report this to our commander, there's no way in hell this is slipping from your record private."

"Fine!" Kamui shot to his feet and, making a show of walking out of the basement proudly while waggling the aforementioned part of him as much as he could.

Subaru took a deep breath, exhaling it slowly.

"That damned little brat!" Seishiro sounded angrier then Subaru thought he might. He slammed the book on his table as well.

"I'm really very sorry for his behavior. He is young and beautiful and I'm afraid that he heard one too many praises for those two traits to allow him proper judgment in certain situations."

Seishiro stared at his warden for a while, a smile sneaking across his face. "That…was actually very witty and clever of you to say." He sounded more surprised then Subaru wanted him to sound.

"Are you surprised that I can be witty and clever?"

Seishiro laughed lightly. "No, it's just that so far the only thing I ever heard from you was 'thou shall not's."

"Yes…well…I'm not that bitchy."

Seishiro's eyes were so warm and deep it made Subaru's heart race, his smile made his head dizzy even more. "That's very good to know. I never thought you would go as low as to bitch."

Subaru was unable to find a witty comeback to that. All he could do was to stare at the man and kick himself mentally for still standing there like an idiot.

The prisoner ran his fingers through his hair, taking a deep audible sigh. "My god that boy gave me a headache…"

"I'm really, very sorry for that."

His hearts skipped another beat when he saw the man smiled under his nerve-wrecked behavior.

His own nerves were pretty wrecked too, Subaru noted, and a cigarette would do him wonders. He lit one to himself. Then looked at the glass cell where the tiger was still licking his wounds.

Hesitatively, wishing someone would walk in and stop him from doing what he's about to do with every step he took, Subaru approached the cage.

With shaking, sweaty hands, he turned the cigarette over and stuck its filter end through the little slit through which Seishiro receives his mail.

Seishiro was still at the table, unaware (or pretending to be unaware) of Subaru.

Subaru coughed politely.

Seishiro remained where he was.

"Uh…Sakurazuka-san…"

Seishiro's eyes were tired and surprised when the turned to Subaru. How could someone who committed such horrible acts appear so _human_? It wrecked Subaru from the inside.

The prisoner got up and, not without an almost childish excitement, walked up to the mail slit. He crouched to the floor and tried to yank the cigarette away with his lips.

"No, you're not allowed to have it inside the ca…cell." Subaru yanked the cigarette away before Seishiro could even have a draft.

Then he realized what he was doing; he was abusing the poor man, wasn't he? What kind of a sadist is he?

He wiggled his cigarette fingers through the slit and held the cylinder tightly between them.

It only made matters worse; to take a draft from the cigarette Seishiro had to glue his lips to the fingers.

The sensation made Subaru start. He was sweating again, blinking uncontrollably and fighting to calm his breath.

Seishiro pretended he was concentrating on the cigarette.

After three drafts Subaru's nerves had had quite enough. "Fine…uh…here" he dropped a new cigarette into the large glass box through which Seishiro receives his meals and bags of laundry.

Seishiro drew the box in and placed the cylinder hurriedly between his lips. He poked its end through the mail slit for Subaru to light.

Already regretting it, Subaru switched weight from one foot to another awkwardly as he lit the cigarette. "Ash into your toilet and give me the cigarette butt when you're done."

Too busy sucking on his cigarette, Seishiro could only nod and hum.

He wobbled over to his bed and crushed on it, placing his right arm on his forehead while taking sweet slow drafts off his cigarette.

Subaru sucked on his half used cigarette nervously, eyeing the prisoner as if expecting him to use the gift to set fire to his cubical.

Surely that was a ridiculous idea, wasn't it? If Seishiro set fire to anything in his cell who would suffer but himself? He'd choke himself to death on the smoke or trap himself in the fire. Fear of that possibility was unreasonable, wasn't it?

He lit another nervous cigarette anyway. Seishiro threw him soft thankful glances. When the cigarette was over he handed the lieutenant his butt and bowed politely as thanks.

Subaru blushed and spent the rest of the shift hiding behind his table. His paperwork didn't get quite as far as it should have been.

It didn't even stand a chance when Seishiro took a shower and, casting a teasing meaningful glace at Subaru, kept the shower room door open.

Subaru choked on his attempt to tell Seishiro to close the door as soon as the man took off his shirt and pants. By the time Seishiro dropped his boxers Subaru was beyond coherent thought. His fingertips itched to relieve himself.

He didn't have to, it came naturally somewhere around Seishiro's rinsing.

When he was finished with his shower Seishiro covered himself with his boxers and walked over to his bed, collapsing on it softly.

Just before he turned off his little bedside lamp he cast a soft glance at Subaru and smiled. "Thank you for the cigarette today, Lieutenant Sumeragi."

Subaru wasn't in his right mind enough to answer, not even with a hum.

Seishiro turned the light off.

And in the darkness he said, "I won't mention it to anyone, I promise."

It crashed on Subaru like the room exploded and the ceiling dropped down on his head.

What had he done?

Later that night, as he tossed and turned on his bed, too nervous to sleep, his thoughts tormented him.

'_How could you do that! You lonely, foolish, lustful idiot! '_

'_You are the second in command of your ward; you have people looking up to you, people looking down on you. And what do you do? You go and you break the rules like that.'_

'_All for a piece of naked ass, you absolute **idiot**!'_

'_What if someone walked in? What if Cp. Aoki had one of his surprise visits on you? What if a messenger warden caught you?'_

'_What if that Shiro guy walked in? Surely your little exchange made him bear a resentment to you, you think he wouldn't use something like that against you!'_

Subaru burst into tears, tearing at his hair.

'_You won't be doing that anymore, no, never!'_

He spent the rest of the night curled up under his blanket, crying and whimpering miserably.

And still the memory of that beautiful man would not leave him. It stayed there, red and hot and stinging like a branding's burn.

* * *

He wrote himself under five more shifts the next week, bent on passing them without a single slip or felony on his behalf.

He walked into the next shift exhausted and edgy, but calm and collected on the outside.

He dismissed pr. Kamui from his shift and was beginning to prepare himself for a quiet, eventless afternoon shift behind the cubicle's desk.

"Hou nouue bdrowen couuew."

Subaru blinked and scanned the two cells before him.

Monou Fuma was dozing off, sprawled on the floor of his detention cell like a dead man, mouth open and drooling freely. Subaru winced in disgust.

Seishiro was sitting at his coffee table with a book in hand, elegant silver rimmed glasses lodged on the bridge of his nose. He was consumed by the book and was reciting from it as he went along.

"Hhouww nnnouuw, bdrrrrowen cuooow."

"What on…w-what are you doing Sakurazuka-san?"

Seishiro tore his gaze from the book and, glancing above the rims of his glasses, sent an erudite look at Subaru. "I'm teaching myself English lieutenant Sumeragi-san."

Subaru mouthed. Well, at least learning English meant there wouldn't be enough sexual tension in the air to choke a grown elephant.

"Ah, I see…"

"How am I doing? 'houuuw nooeeww, broueewn couuew'?"

Subaru couldn't stifle the giggle "Your accent is a headache."

"I see…I apologize then. I've only just begun to study this and I'm still at much fault."

Subaru chuckled again. "That's okay; I'm probably just as horrible."

Seishiro's smile dripped with sugar and flattery. "Never my dear Lieutenant Subaru-san…never."

Said lieutenant forgot he was just called by his first name, proper honorific or no proper honorific. When he would remember it, it'd be too late.

"I-I never knew you needed glasses." He hurried to find a reason to get that smirk away from his eyes.

Seishiro removed the spectacles and examined them carefully, turning them around with his long strong fingers. "Ah, they're only reading glasses and _no-_" he cast a slightly annoyed look at Subaru "-I'm _not_ old enough to need them naturally."

Subaru smiled. "How old are you then?"

"Why won't you check my records and find out?"

"Because I want to hear it from you. The truth that is, what is your real age."

The prisoner pretended to be insulted. "Ah, but you never ask a lady for her true age."

Subaru giggled again (he was completely incapable of controlling it, it just rolled out of him naturally) "But you are not a lady Seishiro-san." (he forgot about that change of naming until too late as well).

Seishiro laughed back, making Subaru laugh even harder.

They spent a nice shift, talking lightly and sharing mutual complaints about English's strange grammar and difficulties to pronounce its letters.

They woke Fuma up with their mutual practices of the letter 'L'

"'rllllllllllllll'"

"'rrrrrrrrr'"

"No, 'rllllllllll'!"

"I apologize sensei, 'rlllrrrrrr.'"

Subaru burst into another fit of giggles. "'Rlrlrlrlrlrl' oh shit." he collapsed on the table, burying his face in his arm to stifle his laughter.

Fuma swore with such foul language he silenced the two for the rest of the shift.

From time to time they'd throw childish playful glances at each other and stifle their resulting giggles.

* * *

When he returned home Subaru was in such a good mood that he dragged his sister to the movies.

They watched a brainless, wit-less, American movie full of toilet humor and bad sexual jokes. Subaru laughed through almost every joke, breaking into giggles between funny scenes and having a general blast.

Hokuto spent the movie giggling and weeping randomly. She never saw her brother in such a good mood since they were little children. She gave her twin a tight hug in the break and bought them another huge popcorn bucket (which Subaru ate almost completely by himself, which was also very uncharacteristic of him because most of the time he wouldn't eat unless she reminded him to do it).

She knew why her brother was so happy all of a sudden. The light shining from his face and the glitters in his eyes were unmistakable; He was in love and love was returned to him.

Hokuto guessed that he was not telling her about it yet because he had the ridiculous notion that she might shun his homosexuality. She had patience though and she waited for him to gather enough courage to tell her. For now she enjoyed her brother's amazing recovery from the black cloud that seemed to be hovering over his life for so long.

Subaru ate more now, talked more, smiled more, _laughed_ more (and **_louder_** too), and he even giggled!

Too bad he didn't seem like quitting the cigarettes anytime soon, but she was willing to ignore that while he bloomed so wonderfully before her eyes.

Nagging her commander, Hokuto snooped through Karen, who snooped through Sorata, for this mystery lover of her brother's.

By the time an evidence came back to her it was three months later and the result was this: Subaru was spotted with Kamui, in his office, holding the lower-ranked youth.

After considering this thoroughly, Hokuto shared her conclusions with Karen.

"I don't know…" She swirled her teacup thoughtfully, staring down at her reflection in the bright yellow liquid.

"Why does it seem so unlikely to you that Pr. Kamui's his lover? I mean he broke up with poor Keiichi long ago, didn't he?" Cp. Kasumi prodded, leaning forward to place herself in Hokuto's vision and grab her drifting attention.

"I don't know but…Kamui-kun seems like the kind that would…well…how can I put it? Oh, how can I say it on my own brother?"

Karen leaned back, still ridden with curiosity.

"Kamui-kun seemed like that kind to…well…be submissive."

Karen burst into laughter and covered her mouth to stifle it immediately.

Sgt. Sorata was on his knees in the dirt around his little bed of sunflowers and was definitely within earshot of the conversation.

"Oh that's okay ladies, never mind how much you'll try to hide things from me I can still hear you." He beamed at them. "And, though I am just surprised as much as his sister, I must admit that amongst the two of them, Shiro-kun would be the woman of the couple."

"It's 'submissive' sergeant and while you're eavesdropping at least don't barge into the conversation," the lieutenant burst at the man on the other end of the fence.

"Hokuto-chan, 'submissive' sounds even worse…I prefer 'uke'," Karen commented, still giggling shamefully.

"Oh? And why is that?"

"Because it's a term taken from martial arts and it…I don't know, that fact gives it a much more…masculine feeling."

Hokuto and Sorata burst into laughter unanimously. "Masculine! 'Uke'," they said at the same time.

Karen nodded, folding her arms persistently.

"Well however you call it, I mostly expected that Subaru would…err…take that role."

"Me too," Sorata nodded.

"Be quiet now sergeant, you've already butted in enough."

"Sorry ma'am."

"Subaru seems like the effeminate sort, doesn't he?"

Karen thought it over before answering her second in command. "Well yes but there's no reason why he shouldn't be the masculine one either, now is there?"

"Shiro-kun is shorter then Sumeragi-san too, I heard it set the roles in those things," Sorata butted in once more.

"You just don't know when to shut up, don't you sergeant," Karen snapped at him half comically.

"How do you know about those things Sorata-kun?" Hokuto giggled at him.

"Ah, I have a niece who's simply crazy about that stuff. Mind you, she's fourteen and she shouldn't be reading…no, _seeing_ half of the things she does."

The women burst into wild laughter.

Sorata brushed it off with a pout. "I don't get you girl, why do you find it so fascinating anyway? It's not so great anyways, right? I mean its kind of disgusting, ne?"

As soon as she calmed herself again Karen wrapped her arms tightly around Hokuto and gave the sergeant a seductive look. "Sorata-kun, wouldn't you like to see me and Hokuto-chan here get down and dirty?"

Sorata gaped at them longer then he intended, longer then he should.

"Sgt. Arisugawa? You answer please."

"Ah! Uh, of course I'd like to, I'd love to actually!"

"You keep that mouth shut or I'll tell your angel about that," Hokuto barked at him, half enraged.

"Now, now Hokuto-chan…" Karen soothed her happily. "Sgt, just like you'd like to see us at it, we'd like to see you and…say, corp. Saiki (he was a corporal by then) going at it."

Saiki, who was just descending the stairs to his ward's garden, nearly tripped and fell flat on his face. "_W-what_?"

"It's nothing serious dear." Karen waved at him happily. "We're just explaining the sergeant here about the origins of homoeroticism's attraction."

Saiki blinked, baffled. "I didn't know it had an attraction…ugh…"

"I think we made our point Sorata-kun." Karen turned to her second in command. "And as for you, stop worrying about silly things like that and just be happy that your brother's out of the dark cloud."

"Oh I am," Hokuto chirped and rose to walk back to her ward, along with her commander.

Saiki and Sorata were left behind to exchange startled looks.

* * *

Subaru walked into the basement for another shift and found the basement quite occupied.

Cp. Aoki and three other wardens, Sgt. Sorata amongst them, were opening Seishiro's cell.

Sorata, who was now busy applying handcuffs to the prisoner, held a garment quite similar to a straitjacket.

"Good morning lieutenant," Aoki beamed at the startled Sumeragi.

"Good morning sir." He saluted his commander. "What's going on?"

"Ah, didn't you get my memo? Sakurazuka-san is having a haircut today."

And indeed, standing at a safe distance from a chair placed on a large towel, the men' ward' barber stood with his small bag of equipment.

Subaru turned his eyes to the cell. Sorata, with stern tentative moves, slowly guided the now cuffed Seishiro backwards from his cell.

Seishiro, whose back was to the staff, had a blank expression besides a slight glitter of cynic amusement in his eyes. He did not move as the handcuffs were removed and the straitjacket applied to him. Once the straitjacket was locked and secured he was handcuffed again, along with foot-cuffs.

It looked awful; the chained and bound man was led, walking backwards, to the chair and turned around again for him to sit on it as comfortably as he could in his condition. Subaru winced as soon as his eyes met the prisoner's.

Cp. Aoki was surveying everything sternly, heavily equipped with every restraint utilities possible (including a bulletproof jacket, which was ridiculous in this situation but tough-looking nonetheless). Besides him Sorata was also heavily equipped and the two other wardens carried the basement's special clubs, helmets and shields.

It looked awfully ridiculous; Seishiro was behaving himself wonderfully besides that slight amusement in his eyes. He did nothing to harm anyone; it seemed like extra precautions unnecessary.

"houw nouw bdrouwn couw." Seishiro smiled as soon as he noted the barber behind him was getting too relaxed as he unfurled his equipment.

The barber jumped a bit and sent a stern frightened glance at the prisoner, then resumed what he was doing.

"And those are the last words you're going to utter during this session Sakurazuka-san," Aoki informed him with a calm, warm but strict tone.

Smirking, Seishiro returned his strict gaze. "Yes sir."

The barbet finished his preparations. "How would you like to have your hair done today Sakurazuka-san?"

Seishiro remained quiet.

The air tensed.

"Answer his question." Aoki's tone said nothing of any irritation or impatient. It sounded more like he was talking to a pupil rather then the highly dangerous man he considered Seishiro as.

"I'd like a Mohawk please." Seishiro's smile broadened, he shot happy glances at Subaru like a naughty child.

The barber blinked helplessly at the captain.

"Don't try to be smart please, we all have far better things to do then to be here doing this." Aoki folded his arms on his chest, but besides that he showed absolutely no change in his mood.

Seishiro caught Subaru's gaze and broadened his smile, defusing it from bitter venom to sheer humor.

"Very well, I'd like the usual haircut and please mind the fringe; you didn't do quite your best with it last time."

The barber mouthed a bit, trying to gather the courage to shoot something back at the man but giving up finally.

Subaru knew this man; he 'inherited' this job from his brother and was not at all happy with some of its clients. In the meantime he knew that with his relatively poor skills he could find no other occupations in the trade.

He was always rambling about he has his wife and kids and how everyday he fears for their change of status to 'widow and orphans'.

His hands trembled at first as he began running his small silver scissors through Seishiro's raven locks but as the man's calm behavior continued he gradually calmed down.

As the haircut ended Seishiro was returned to his cell, after a sweetened "thank you" to the agitated barber, and the party of guards retreated. They left Subaru alone with his guilt and embarrassment.

He was far too kind and polite to ever witness a man, any man, go through such maneuvers without feeling guilty for it.

He followed the barbered Seishiro as the prisoner scrutinized himself in his bathroom mirror and wiped the fallen hair bits off his nape with a wet towel.

Seishiro's eyes shot to his food and laundry drawer as he heard it click shut. Two cigarettes lay in the plastic cradle. He cracked a warm bright smile and walked over to the box.

Subaru stood silently by the wall, his eyes soft and warm, slightly wet with pity and guilt's tears.

"Thank you Subaru-kun, you made me feel ever so much better." His voice was sweet and deep, velvety and calm.

Subaru smiled back, grateful.

They stared deep into each other's eyes through the thick glass for what seemed like forever, their expressions soon fading under their buzzing thoughts.

Seishiro placed his right palm on the glass.

Contemplating, but not for too long, Subaru did the same with his left hand over the prisoner's. The glass was far too thick to allow them to feel each other's body warmth, but they could feel it anyway.

Shyly, his face burning red, Subaru placed his right palm on the glass. Seishiro did the same, crouching a little to level himself with Subaru's head.

They stared directly into each other's eyes.

Seishiro's eyes swallowed Subaru's vision; they blurred everything else around them, gaping at him so enchantingly until he couldn't think about anything else.

His mind was a blank as he drew his face closer and closer to the glass, noting vaguely that Seishiro was doing the same thing on his side.

The glass fogged as their breaths covered the surface with white vapor circles spreading and shrinking as they drew breath and exhaled.

The glass felt cold as Subaru placed his lips on it. He registered only that, for he closed his eyes and forgot about anything else.

He didn't have to take a peek to know Seishiro did the same.

The glass didn't taste of anything as he ran his tongue gently on the surface, drawing tiny circles between his lips.

His heart was beating madly, his head was lost in a hurricane, his body felt light and numb, and his thoughts were completely gone. He soon glued himself completely to the glass, hardly registering the press of his ward' pin into his chest' flesh.

Sensing something, he opened his eyes and saw that Seishiro removed his face from the glass and was smiling at him. His eyes were still penetrating and warm but there was an unidentified quality to his smirk that disturbed Subaru.

He scanned the mirroring blotches of saliva and the opposite clouds of dissolving vapor and felt his face re-flushing. He was embarrassed to no end.

Seishiro took one of the cigarettes in the box and lodged it between his smirking lips, grabbing the other cylinder and hiding it securely in his jacket's inner pocket.

Subaru frowned, fighting to find something to distract his buzzing mind as he lit his own cigarette. "Why do you always wear a three piece Seishiro-san?"

The prisoner chuckled, relishing the childish bashfulness in the other man's eyes. "Because I feel the need to be treated with respect and these clothes earn me just that."

"I think that's people's fear of you that gives you some respect."

"And I think that my suits only add to my image which, along with the fear, gives me the kind of respect I wish for."

Subaru blinked and turned his head away, about to walk to his cubicle and pretend that he did not have that bizarre version of the first kiss of his life.

"Subaru-kun, why weren't you here yesterday?" Seishiro sounded painful just enough to grab Subaru away from the pit of self blame and guilt he was about to hurl himself into.

"Ah, it was my birthday yesterday."

"Really? And you didn't tell me? I'm offended you think so lowly of me."

"A…N-no! S-Seishiro-san, I never think lowly of you!"

"Then why didn't you tell me? Do you think I think so little of you?" Seishiro's eyes were grave and offended.

Subaru mouthed, then gave up and pouted a bit, blushing again.

"I would have bought you a birthday present."

"…."

"So, February the nineteenth is your birthday." Seishiro rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I'll write it in my calendar for next year. And the year after that." He sighed and walked over to his coffee table, crushing into the nearby little sofa. "And the one the next year, and the year after that and the year after that as well…"

Subaru was still at a loss of replies. His heart was resuming its wild beating, his face refused to recover from the wild blush.

"Where were you born Subaru-kun?"

"Kyoto."

Seishiro lodged his chin on his palm and leaned on the table, crossing his legs elegantly. "Oh? I've been to Kyoto once; it's a very nice place. You come from a traditional family Subaru-kun?"

"Well, my grandmother is very traditional and she raised us after our parents died. But me and my sister kind of grew out of it when we moved to police academy…actually I think we grew out of it as soon as we could think for ourselves."

"You have a sister Subaru-kun? You never told me."

Seishiro's surprised tone made Subaru remember their earlier kiss and how they did it while knowing so little of each other. He was just calming himself but now the blush returned.

"Yes. A twin sister, Hokuto-chan. She's a lieutenant like me in the woman's ward here."

"Oh how nice, you must be very happy to be so similar to each other…"

Subaru frowned. "Happy to be similar? Actually we're very different from one another. I mean, besides the fact that I'm a boy and she's a girl, we're very different in character. Hokuto-chan is…the livelier one, the noisy and happy one…I…I like to keep to myself…

"Why would you say we must be happy to be so similar? Most of the people who knew I had a twin mostly said that it must be a pity for me to have someone just like me around all the time."

Seishiro contemplated for a while before returning his gaze, thoughtful and soft, to Subaru

"Because…because I'm jealous of you. I was always the lonely boy who kept seeing his age group's interests and joys as boring and meaningless. I always hoped to find the someone who will understand me, the someone to whom I can talk about anything I want." And with that he set his eyes so forcefully on Subaru, so powerfully and deeply digging into his warden's orbs that Subaru found himself immobile under their gaze.

"… See…well…um…"

"Ah, but I'm rambling and I'm keeping you off that paperwork you set out to go over today." Seishiro grabbed for his book and began flipping it to find the page where he last stopped reading. "Please, go on with your business, don't let me disturb you."

"…You're…very kind, Seishiro-san."

"Thank you but I believe that you are the kind one, Subaru-kun."

Subaru reviewed his paperwork with enthusiasm that shifts, making out for lost months and shifts he wasted all this time by staring at things and talking to Seishiro.

When he raised his eyes to the prisoner from time to time he'd find that Seishiro also raised his eyes from his book and was sending him cheerful, encouraging glances.

They'd smile at each other and resume their former occupations.

Only Subaru's aforementioned grandmother knew of the rather dangerous fact that you should never tell a wizard your real birthday and birthplace.

But that fact went ignored by her grandchild because he grew out of her believes.

Looking back on it Subaru did not regret the kiss. Not even after he came to realize what it was exactly that he was making himself a part of.

* * *

Fuma's escape scheme, so delicately plotted, almost came to a shattering end as one day, as Subaru walked down to another basement shift.

Subaru caught pr. Kamui sharing a hot, deep kiss with Fuma who was in detention again at the time.

Subaru stopped before the second glass cell and gawked, snapping almost immediately out of his shock and using his club to knock on the wall and yank Kamui out of Fuma's passionate embrace.

Kamui straightened his uniforms, buttoned up his shirt and walked out of the cell gracefully.

"_What **on earth** were you doing pr. Shiro?_" Subaru huffed at him as soon as the boy was stood securely before him.

Kamui flipped an unruly cruel away from his sight and shrugged lightly. "Just playing a little."

"**_Playing_**? That is an _inmate_ you were playing with and you're a _warden_, in case you've forgotten _private_!"

Kamui glared mauve fire at him scornfully. "Alright, alright, don't get your frilly panties in a knot."

"_Do **NOT** talk to your commander like that private_! I suggest you reconsider your status here and the punishment for both your misbehaviors here in case word of them gets to Cp. Aoki!"

"You'll never dare," Kamui hissed back.

"**_WHAT?_**" Subaru was about to really lose his patience over this horribly rude behavior from an underling. He knew Kamui could be a snappy bitch, only he never imagined he'd get to such extremes.

"I know you're doing the same…" Fuma punching his cell's glass, sending a fiery glare at the young man on its other side, interrupted his words.

Huffing and puffing, struggling not to panic and go on a rampage, Subaru darted frightened angry looks from Kamui to Fuma to Seishiro who stood agitatedly at the nearest corner to the second cell, his fists clenched.

"I'd like to have a word in this here, if you don't mind you little brat," Seishiro called out, turning his words to Fuma by their end. His voice was loud, almost shouting, to snap Subaru out of the storm of his emotions, yet it was unbelievably calm.

"Lieutenant Sumeragi, I would like to say that Monou here, during a light conversation about this ward's staff, heard me comment that I think you are the only sane and capable warden amongst the staff and from _this_ he drew his perverse, petty conclusions."

Subaru glared at him hard enough to melt his glass cell's walls.

The next moment he snapped his eyes to Kamui and hissed. "Get back to your ward private, I'll talk to you as soon as my shift's over."

Kamui huffed.

"_Get out, **now**_! That's an order private!"

Kamui spun on his heels and stomped his way out, throwing a venomous "Bitch" across his shoulder as soon as he was by the door.

"I heard that."

"Good!"

Subaru took a deep breath and turned his back to the two cells.

"That snippy little bitch," Seishiro spat towards the door.

"**_Shut the fuck up you!_**" Subaru roared at him, his eyes afire.

Seishiro opened his mouth, and then closed it.

But Subaru was not over his tantrum. "And you, Monou, your detention record says you're out of here in two days. I'll personally make sure it'll say 'two weeks' when I'm finished here!"

Fuma leaped to his feet, throwing his fists at the glass wall and kicking it as hard as he could. "Fine then motherfucker, it'll just give me more time to gossip!" With this he grabbed his cell's toilet seat and, ripping it off the basin, hurled it at the glass that bounced it back unharmed.

Subaru remained frozen and furious. "Do _not_ make me come in there with my tear gas and tranquilizer Monou!"

Fuma spat at the wall and stormed off (as much as he could) to the other end of his cell where he crouched and hissed various other unrepeatable phrases at Subaru for the rest of the lieutenant's shift.

Seishiro remained on his spot, unmoving and silent, fighting to reorganize and recalculate his future moves.

When the shift was over Subaru grabbed Kamui and dragged him to his office with hisses and darting glares.

"What the fuck, Shiro! What the _fucking_ fuck," he cried as soon as they were behind closed doors

Kamui straightened his gaze at his commander; much calmer and better calculated now then he was at the time.

He removed his eyes from Subaru's after a while and bowed his head, smiling softly to himself.

"Me and Fuma…we grew up in the same neighborhood, we were childhood friends. My parents moved out when I was fourteen and our ways separated. He walked the path to crime and I walked to police academy.

"I mean…there was sexual tension just before I moved out and I was always in doubt about it ever since…" He met Subaru's gaze again (which was much softer now, less frantic) and smiled more pitifully, youthfully, wishing for mercy "This…little dominance thing of our new positions…it kind of fired everything up, the sexy way…"

Subaru straightened his back and drew his palms to his temples, rubbing the headache away. "Why didn't you inform me or cp. Aoki of this information?"

"Because I thought I could control it…sir, I only did it once and you stopped us in the middle of it."

Subaru gave him a harsh glare and cocked his head sideways.

"Fine…twice…"

Subaru did not remove or alter his glare.

"It's true!"

His commander sighed "Fine then…but you will not do it again, am I making myself clear?"

Kamui shook his head.

"Pr. Shiro!"

"It's stronger then me sir!"

Subaru launched forward, grabbing Kamui by the shoulders and shaking him "Pr. Shiro, we're playing with fire here, I don't think you're aware of it! We're doing something forbidden! We're…"

He exhaled audibly and paled as he noted Sgt. Sorata, who was just peeking into the room, leaning on the door handle and stared at them in awe.

"_Get-out-of-here-sergeant, **NOW**_!"

"Yes sir." The door was shut. The "Oh my god, they're _together_!" failed to be muffled by the door. It served to calm Subaru of the fear that the real conversation's topic was discovered.

Sorata scurried off to tell Hokuto immediately. That is when they had their little talk in the garden.

Meanwhile, in the office, Kamui sharpened his glare to new bitching levels as he followed the now pacing Subaru.

"You said 'we'," he smirked.

Subaru sighed, hanging tired eyes at the private "What?"

"You said '_we_'re playing with fire' not '_you_'re playing with fire', lieutenant."

Subaru mouthed, paling again.

Kamui smiled softly and walked over to his commander, wrapping his arms around the man. "Don't worry sir, I'll keep my mouth shut tight if you keep yours."

Subaru almost kicked the boy off of him. "Is that a threat private?"

Kamui's eyes were huge and innocent, his tone so very clean and neutral. "No sir! Never! If your ass goes down so does mine." He chuckled, shrugging lightly. "We're partners in crime. In a good way." He walked out of the office, sending some more unarming sweet friendly smiles at his commander.

Subaru crushed into his office chair and fought the tears of panic.

* * *

He didn't go to a single basement shift for two weeks.

Two weeks of sheer agony.

The dark cloud was back, bearing heavy misery more powerful then loneliness' bitter numbness.

When he closed his eyes he couldn't stop seeing Seishiro's eyes staring at him.

At night when he tried to wind down to sleep he'd see Seishiro's showering form before him and sleep became impossible.

He didn't notice he asked his barber for Seishiro's hairdo until it was too late.

He stared at himself in the mirror for hours after that, wondering what on earth became of his life since he first walked into that basement.

He loved Seishiro, he knew that, and could only guess the other man's emotions reflected his from Seishiro's acts and words.

But Seishiro was a murderer, a sociopath, psychopath and a bloodthirsty, coldhearted killer…who knows what his behavior might hide.

All his life Subaru was so depressed, so frustrated and needy and attention deprived…so lonely…

He got a glimpse of light and became dizzy.

He was still dizzy. Still in love.

Hokuto walked into her and her brother's apartment one evening to find her brother sitting in the living room, surrounded by darkness, listening to a foreign song on replay.

"_Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am home again_

_Whenever I'm alone with you_

_You make me feel like I am whole again"_

"Subaru?"

"…."

"Is everything alright?"

"Y-yes ne-chan…Just musing a little that's all."

"Ah, I see. That's a nice song, who's it by?"

"The Cure."

"I see. It's very…smooth." She walked towards the light switch, placing her bad by the door sloppily.

"Whenever I listen to The Cure it makes me think of Tim Burton movies."

"Uh…okay…" Hokuto concentrated on trying to make sense of her brother's mumbles. "Ah yes, all gothic and dark, right?" It fitted the tune, it really did.

"Yeah." Light spilt all over around him; making him wince, his little comfortable musing bubble was burst.

"Subaru, you cut your hair…differently I mean." Hokuto walked over to her twin, running her fingers quickly through his hairs to get a better assessment of the change.

He raised a pair of tired eyes to his sister and smiled wanly. Then he hugged her tightly to him, resting his head on her abdomen. She returned the hug immediately.

"Hokuto-chan…you'll always be with me right? You'll never…be angry at me enough to not talk to me ever again, right?"

He was talking about his homosexual lover, wasn't he?

Hokuto stifled a giggle and bit down on her growing smile. "No Subaru, I'll always be here for you. Never mind what you'll tell me. And I'll be damned if I'll let anyone talk badly of you too."

She felt Subaru nod and lean deeper into her. She tightened her hug.

He thought of Seishiro and of resuming his basement shifts.

"_However far away  
I will always love you  
However long I stay  
I will always love you  
Whatever words I say  
I will always love you  
I will always love you"_

_

* * *

_

He booked himself to a night shift as soon as he arrived at Sharonza the next morning.

Cp. Aoki found him by the work chart, making alterations and completely sunk in it.

"Good morning Lt. Subaru! My you've booked yourself a lot in that hole lately eh?" He gave the slim man a friendly pat to the back.

Subaru nodded gravely. "I reached the conclusion that it's better to put people with more experience and/or of higher rank at that particular shift, for precaution that is."

"That is a wise decision lieutenant; I only wonder why you didn't inform me of it earlier."

"I was about to sir, as soon as I finished making these alterations."

"That's a decision I'm proud to have an underling of mine take Subaru-san." He gave Subaru another pat. "Keep at it and soon you'll find yourself in my office eh?" He winked and turned to leave.

He was back by the work chart almost immediately, his eyes sharp instead of dimmed and childish as they were earlier. "You said 'with more experience and/or of higher rank' Sumeragi-san but I see here that you've also placed private Shiro in many shifts, he's only been here for five months."

"I've been looking at his records and his behavior in the ward and decided to give him this chance to prove himself as officer material by dealing with a task like the basement shifts…"

A sneaky smile curled on the captain' lips, his eyes were harmless again. "Trying to promote Shiro-san are you Subaru-kun?"

Subaru blinked at the sudden use of _that_ honorific by the man. Then he remembered the conclusions Sorata drew and realized what Aoki was sniggering about.

"It's anything but that sir, never sir…"

Aoki chuckled and began walking towards his office. "That's alright lieutenant."

Subaru chased him down the hall "No sir it's not, I have absolutely no such thoughts sir…"

"I said it's alright!"

"Honestly, there are no other fitting men in our ward sir."

"I know."

"I'd do the same to Arisugawa-san if he wouldn't keep declining our offers."

"I know Subaru-san, please, carry on. Ignore the lewd giggles of an old man." And with that Aoki waved his goodbyes and disappeared into his office, leaving Subaru to wonder if Aoki even had the proper brain cells to allow him lewd thoughts.

He returned to the work chart and realized he wrote 'Lt. Sumeragi Subaru-kun' in every empty box. Shuddering, he corrected his mistake.

That evening, as he released Saiki of his shift, he walked straight to Seishiro's cell door and unlocked it.

Seishiro was on the sofa and completely submerged in his English book (now a grammar studying one, which he was filling out like a good enthusiastic pupil).

His eyes were surprised and clear when he suddenly saw the lieutenant in his cell. They soon softened into warmth, and then heated into fire.

Subaru stood frozen, staring at the man who got up and walked over to him, to grab him by the shoulders and sink him in a deep kiss, a real one.

Subaru stopped him before things got too far. He stopped him the next time too. And in the time after that as well.

* * *

The first time he didn't stop Seishiro happened on the evening before the first strike of rebellion hit Sharonza Heights.

Subaru sat on the bed besides Seishiro, both undressed and sweaty, smoking their cigarettes in silence.

Subaru hated himself so much for what he just did. He also loved Seishiro for doing that to him. He hated the prison and his status in it for making it a crime.

His thoughts drifted to Hokuto and suddenly she felt far, far away, never to be reached again.

He never knew quite how unreachable she would soon become.

(tbc)


	6. Part 6

**Disclaimer: **I do not own X. The Prison is mine though and is based (in name only) on a prison over here. Pochi Project was something I saw on Oz. The Night Owls are a women a cappella group and have absolutely no connection to the plot; I saw their name on a Comedy Central show and loved the name for a group of black clad women.

And no, I don't know Evanescence's band member's names because I care, but because I Wikipedia-ed it for info.

**Author's notes: **The ranks of wardens here go by military ranks as it is over here anyways. Plus I've aged characters who in X are too young to fill in the roles of this story.

**Author's Thanks: **To Iwannasleep from (why is Kamui a bitch? Because he can), Tekoo from (sorry sweety, this fic will not have any lime or lemon), Amy Levi from (thank you!), Darh Angel of Fire Ice from (thank you!), Grey Wings from (thank you!), to Nancy from (are you right? Mmmmmaaaaayyyybeeeeee. Tee hee) and toNikkler from (thank you!).

I'm so sorry it took me so long to update this fic, but I needed to work on other things both in the life arena and in the fic arena. Also this fic experienced an attempted assassination so, yeah.

**Warning: **Language and violence. Hey, it's a jail, people; remember what Oz was like? Yeah, a little like that only not-THAT-bad.

* * *

**Part 6 **

- - - - - - - -

**_Jailbird: _**Hello.

**_KattyKitty: _**….hello?

**_Jailbird: _**How are you?

**_KattyKitty: _**Do I know u?

**_Jailbird: _**No. I found you through your interests list. I love Evanescence too

**_KattyKitty: _**OMG! I love them 2!1! They rock! They rule! They're teh bestest band eva!

**_Jailbird: _**It's so nice to meet other people who love them as much as I do; there aren't a lot of them where I'm at.

**_KattyKitty: _**O yeah headdesk a/s/l.

**_Jailbird: _**19/f/Japan.

**_KattyKitty: _**Japan! That's cool! I'm 14/f/CO.USA.

**_Jailbird: _**Nice to meet you, Katty.

**_KattyKitty: _**So the ultimate question for Evanc Fans who's hotter John LeCompt or Amy Lee?

**_Jailbird: _**Hmm…tricky…John for sure. He's a man, the other three are ugly and Amy, well, she's a woman…

**_KattyKitty: _**I think they're both hot XXXD don't get me wrong pls I think Amy's hot in a kind of….like…'OMFG I want to be her' get me?

**_Jailbird: _**Got you. Shit, gatta 5.

**_KattyKitty: _**Sure C U later?

- - - - - - - -

"Please leave the computer station, Yatouji-san."

Satsuki spun her hips and turned on her feet to rise from the chair as smoothly as a well oiled piece of machinery. She gave second lieutenant Machita a blank glance and walked out of the small library's computer corner booth. Her steps were smooth and flowing so that she seemed to be hovering over the ground.

Machita followed the teen with her gaze and sighed, giving up on attempting to analyze or understand Satsuki.

She seemed to be a perfect asocial person of the silent type. She didn't try to upset anyone, her lack of social care and skills were expressed by being a cold-hearted alienated person and refusing to do anything about it.

"She seems happier this way." Lieutenant Hokuto's voice oozed into Machita's thoughts softly like creeping fog.

"Happy? Who would be happy in jail?"

"Not in jail, but with the way she's being treated by us and others. The other girls must read the 'don't talk to me, don't mess with me' sign on her forehead and leave her alone. I think that's what she wants; her own privacy and peace of mind. I'm very happy about it, she's very lucky to be able to find it here."

Machita folded her arms on her chest, "I have to agree with you, Hokuto-chan. Look at her; she's young, she's got a good body and she's so phased out of everything around her that anyone can jump her anytime without her knowing what hit her. She's very lucky no one's picked on her yet."

"That's what I mean. The Night Owls would make a feast of her, but even they're avoiding her."

"Oh, you've gone and woken Murphy-san up; look."

A convict about the same height as Satsuki and twenty years her senior, dressed in her gang uniform of a long flowing, velvet black dress, toned her steps so that she'd come into onto Satsuki's route to her cell.

Satsuki merely stopped her step short, moved herself sideways a bit, spun her shoulders away to avoid contact with the approaching woman and completely avoided crashing into her. She seemed to have smoothed from the woman's path like a gush of wind, curling away and moving on.

She didn't even give the jail gangster a glance.

The Night Owl spun around to walk backwards while keeping an eye on the withdrawing youth. A cunning smile stretched on her black painted lips as she turned herself forward again, swinging her arms at her sides and putting a spring of joy into her steps.

"Machi-chan?"

"Yes, Hokuto-chan?"

"Keep an eye on Yatouji."

"On _Yatouji_? Why on her when Shigama," the Night Owl, "is the one who approached first?"

"The time of approaching from any gang is inevitable. Its outcome depends on the one approached. Something tells me that even though she's cold as ice on the inside, if you poke her the wrong way Yatouji can burst out and become quite a fiend."

"I-it sounds reasonable, but…. her background and all….I think she plots her paybacks instead of handing them immediately at the moment of attack."

"Which only makes her more dangerous."

"You're absolutely right. I'll keep an eye on Yatouji. I'll go make a note to the other girls."

"Nah, don't bother. Yatouji's off to sleep now and the Night Owls never jump anyone without giving her three warnings. I'll mention it at the next staff meeting."

"Okay-dokey, Hokuto-chan! By the way, who's doing Karchan-sama's birthday cake this year?" 'Karchan-sama' being a short version of "Karen-chan-sama".

"_Eeeeeh_! _Birthday cake_? Already? Damn, I totally forgot!"

"Ha ha, don't stress yourself, it's in two months' time, but since last time we nearly had a civil war over who'd make the cake because we decided it on such a short notice and everyone wanted to do it, we're going to organize a vote about it and _in advance_."

"Clever thinking…"

"Thank you."

Hokuto wrapped her arm around the second lieutenant's shoulder and gave her a small formal squeeze before heading back to her office.

* * *

Satsuki did not ignore the Night Owl's warning; in fact, she picked it up and analyzed it so sharply that she knew what the older woman plotted before she even began changing her course to try and bump into her. 

Her silence and lack of social connections did not at all mean that Satsuki was not perceptive of her surrounding. While her wardens were absolutely sure her mind was hovering at a different stratosphere, Satsuki was in fact very much here and very much alert to every change in the ward around her.

The gaping, snarling void of boredom forced her to open her eyes after a sleepy three week period which began when she entered Sharonza's sixth ward.

During this time she either slept or performed the tasks she was forced to perform; waking up for roll call, attending meals, standing for roll call before bedtime.

She was assigned to the ward's kitchen and on her first day she fell asleep at one of the work stations, standing up and leaning her upper body on the cold stainless steel surface.

When she was forcibly awakened she was drowsy and unresponsive, her movements sluggish and clumsy.

Kotori took one look at her and sat for a very grave conversation with Captain Karen about how the shock of complete disconnection from computers, her trialing and jailing processes pushed her to the state she was in at the moment.

"I've been observing her," Kotori said with a matter-of-factly frown, "she's been eating less and less lately."

"Well, the girl's depressed about being caught. She was so sure she was this high and mighty computer genius and it hurt to be found wrong. It's a natural reaction to be a little bit depressed about it, isn't it?" Karen leaned her chin on her palm, trying to look the least threatening to the fragile looking girl before her.

"Depression is one thing and what she's doing is another. She is turning herself off; she's shutting the outside world out. She's passively trying to kill herself."

Karen straightened her back and stared at Kotori for a while, testing the other woman's seriousness. Finally she leaned back into her chair and wove her fingers together, staring at her computer screen, sunk in thoughts.

"What do you suggest we do with her, then?" she said finally.

"Is there a chance for her to receive a few hours in which she'll have computer access?"

"I'm afraid that's too much to ask. Yatouji-san managed to bend whole computer systems to her will; computers are off limits for her, especially for long sessions such as _hours_."

Kotori did not change her expression or her forward leaning position; she did not remove her assertive eyes from the captain. "Is it your final answer?"

Karen looked the counselor beyond her desk up and down. "It's not my decision. Yatouji-san is one of those convicts who come with a request list about the conditions in which she is to be kept. She's too much of a high risk prisoner to have petty officers such as me decide anything about her conditions."

She stopped to muse for a moment.

"I'll tell you what; you write down your diagnosis of Yatouji-san's condition and I'll make as many calls as I can. No one wants an inmate's suicide on his conscience, especially no one in higher ranks; I'm sure that if you describe her condition as worse than it is it'll turn a few cogs in the bosses' minds."

Kotori allowed herself to lean back into her chair and beamed a grateful smile at Karen, "Thank you so much, Captain!"

"Call me 'Karen-san'."

The first time Satsuki was allowed computer access she sat before the monitor and stared at it absentmindedly. She had only fifteen minutes per week and the whole wide world right there, at the tips of her fingers beyond the glass of the screen; the difference between what she could do and the time she had to do it numbed her.

The mouse and keyboard were no longer a part of her body as they often grew to be during endless glorious nights of hacking and surfing. They were an invitation to a murder, a poisoned apple, tempting her to bite it.

She played with magnificent toys such as the one before her and look where it had gotten her. Yet she knew, as she sat and stared at the peaceful blue and white desktop image of a lightly clouded sky, that the moment she reaches out to the machine she'll be sucked in again just as she was the first time.

Did she want to be sucked in? Satsuki didn't know and couldn't make up her mind about it. The more she thinks about it, the more she'll think of computers in general. The more she thinks about computers, the faster she'll be hooked again.

Then her mind snapped back to reality. Hooked? Her! Nonsense, she's not a computer addict, she's a computer master.

It wasn't the ultimate access to every source of every piece of information on the internet that dazzled Satsuki the first time she really got a good session on her computer back home; it was the way that even simple, not that updated, not that sophisticated and not that powerful machine she had at home abided with her every move.

For her it worked its internet connection into higher speed, forced itself to find software for her when she needed it, fought back viruses and spyware. When she kept it on during the night and when she was away in school the machine downloaded things for her without even being asked for it, it spellchecked her files, edited her pictures. It was enough for her to use the search engine to seek anything about anything during one surfing session and the next time she sat to work on her CPU she'd find _everything_ that was out there, arranged and fully downloaded, in a desktop folder.

It took her a while to realize the power she had over computers.

At first she rejected it completely; 'powers' were something out of fairytales, out of childrens' animated programs, out of science fiction books and manga. Her logic told her that if powers are mostly myth-based then they are as ancient as these myths. If they're ancient then they do not apply to modern things such as computers.

Just for the heck of it, Satsuki attempted to control one of her school library's computers. It obeyed her. It refused any other users after her. What finally flickered on the torch of comprehension and accepting of her powers was that the one computer she touched connected the other library's computers and made them as obedient to her as it was.

Now, not only did she have the power to control one PC and to bend it to her command, but she could also make the one computer she sat to bring to her the leashes to as many computers as she pleased.

She could have been in much worse trouble than she got herself into if she had used the full force of her abilities. She could have become invincible, out of reach for the whole world's law, all powerful.

But she wasn't. She didn't use her full force. She kept her damage toned down.

Why?

If you'd have asked her before she was arrested, Satsuki would have said she kept herself from using all her might because she understood it hurt people. Though she was never a very social person and had suffered the random blow from witty or bitchy popular schoolmates, Satsuki still believed there was a place for her in this world of humans.

As she sat to her first computer session in jail, Satsuki's belief in humans was much smaller. The police's treatment to her, the press' cover of her story, her family's reaction, her neighbors' reactions, all those harsh experiences from other humans. Computers banned from her, just when she was finally easing into her status amongst them.

Finally, she reached out and placed her palm on the mouse. She opened Internet Explorer and typed her email account's address. It has been blocked, the police's arms reached further than she thought.

Very well then, she'll open a new account. She'll open a new email account and register as a brand new user in her favorite chat program. After all, thanks to the media, everyone knows what her old username was and will not believe her if she claims the same name again.

A new username is a new mask, a new blank page to write on, a new personality, a new chance at cyberspace.

Fifteen minutes a week, on the other hand, was beginning to grind on her nerves. Not enough time to check her emails properly; she managed to do so much and know too many people who wanted to know more of her.

Fifteen minutes a week was not enough to properly communicate with the computer she sat to, she was sure, so she didn't even try.

Fifteen minutes of one week over and Satsuki learned just how much she really didn't like her new restriction. She didn't notice how violent she got until Arashi's stun gun sent an electric blow into her stomach.

She reeled, stumbled backwards, blinking at private Kishuu in a stupor and collapsed to the floor.

Solitary confinement was worse than she had imagined. Nothing but the warden watching her to keep her mind busy. Such a small cell, walls so tightly closing down on her. Satsuki wrung her fingers, stroked her short hair, pulled at her hair, gnarled her fingernails, gnarled at the skin around her fingernails until they bled, and still she was absolutely bored beyond her wits.

She tried watching the man in the cage beside hers. As soon as he noticed her watching he stopped what he was doing (ironing his clothes) and sat down to read a book. Satsuki only realized that he stopped giving her things to watch when she noted he had been sitting in the same position and reading a book, while doing nothing other than turning a page, for six hours straight.

Even this man, whom she doesn't know at all, chooses to abuse her. Why? What had she done to him!

Hang on a second, Satsuki, this man's a criminal, a very dangerous one, obviously he's not the sanest of them all. He's not doing anything in particular against you; he's just being the psychopathic sadist that he probably is.

He _looks_ pretty sane.

No, he's a psychopathic sadist. Leave him alone.

She had nothing else to do other than stare at the warden before her. Sergeant Arisugawa spent most of his shift leaning back into his chair, feet up on the table, flipping through sports and cars magazines. He did look up to inspect both his prisoners once every fifteen minutes or so, but other than that he did nothing interesting to watch.

Boring, boring, boring, boring.

God, she hated Private Kishuu, she hated her more than the policemen who broke into her small apartment and arrested her. She hated her more than she hated the prosecution's lawyer in her trial. She hated her more than she hated the reporter who dug out an ex of hers and made a huge mess of why he dumped her (too much time on the computer, not enough sex).

An image flashed before Satsuki's eyes; Private Kishuu's eyes gauged out by flickering electric cables. She frowned at it and brushed it away. She's not the type to think thoughts like that. Is she?

It's boring in here.

Later that week Satsuki had the pleasure of watching two very interesting wardens; Segawa-san and Saiki-san.

Segawa's shift was most interesting due to the fact that his personal life glittered before her and the other prisoner as soon as his shift began.

Keiichi came down to the basement to replace a Private Shiro (who spent most of the shift ignoring the both of them by reading yaoi). As the two exchanged small glances it was obvious that Segawa was pining for Shiro, who, on his behalf, icily ignored him.

"S-so, uh, how was the shift Ka..Shiro-san?" the young officer tried stalling Shiro's stay in the basement.

The private shrugged and shook his head a bit, pulling his uniform jacket off from the back of his chair. He walked past the officer towards the door.

"No trouble then?" Keiichi's voice was obviously on the brink of cracking under unshed tears.

"Nope. Bye." Shiro closed the door behind him while giving Segawa a short blank stare.

"Yes….goodbye, Kamui-kun…." Keiichi's voice cracked.

Satsuki noted the man in the cage by her shifted his position. He was busy seasoning the salad he got for lunch when he noted the shift change. As soon as he saw the young officer bowing his head to try and hide his emotions he stopped what he was doing and walked up to the spot in his cage closest to the wall facing Keiichi – the coffee table – sat down by it leaning his chin on his hand and watched Keiichi with a fake sweet smile.

Satsuki stared at the assassin's behavior with astonishment. He was behaving like a perfect villain. People like that actually existed?

She turned to watch Keiichi who was slowly making his way to the small equipment room.

He stood at its entrance, leaning a hand on the lintel, and did what was obviously crying.

Satsuki watched his shoulders shudder, his back slowly bending forward, his other hand reaching out to wipe his eyes and cover his face.

The man in the cage beside her produced a very deep, very clear chuckling. Again, he took Satsuki completely by surprise with his perfectly cold elegant cruelty.

Lt. Segawa waddled back to the main chamber some half an hour later. He looked a lot older, his face almost grey, and did not seem to be completely taking in anything around him. He poured himself a glass of water, dipping his fingers in it to wash his face and drank the rest in one go. He cuddled the empty glass to his chest, his eyes blankly staring at the floor before him.

Something tipped off the lieutenant of Seishiro's staring at him and he whipped his eyes to the assassin. Seishiro flashed a wider smile, cocking his head sideways a bit to seem like an tentative friend.

Keiichi's eyes flashed anger for a moment, taken aback by the prisoner's daring, but the storm of fiery emotion passed quickly; Keiichi walked behind his post's table and settled down, pretending to be busy reading a book he brought with him.

Seishiro was not so easily fooled. He stayed in the same position, with the same expression, until the lieutenant's shift was over. He did it because Segawa had to occasionally check on them and when he did, Seishiro's cruel grin was there to cut him.

Satsuki found that this was making her happy; the sight of someone being cruel to someone else. Why? Was it specifically aimed at Sakurazuka-san who pulled off his every act of sadism so perfectly, so cruelly, so elegantly? Or was it the mere idea of hurt inflicted on someone else for no other reason but the sheer joy of causing pain?

Satsuki pushed herself away from the corner and onto the wall facing the other cell. She folded her legs closer to her chest and wrapped her arms tighter around her legs, leaning her chin on her knees.

The next object of entertainment was Private Saiki. Satsuki loved his shifts. The man couldn't sit down for five straight minutes. He couldn't do the same thing for five straight seconds. He couldn't look directly at anything for more than three seconds. She found that watching him pace, fidget and twitch about the chamber was the most pleasurable thing she's ever experienced here other than Seishiro's abuse of Lt. Segawa.

The two pleasures were soon mingled as, during one of Saiki's shifts, Seishiro tapped the glass closest to Satsuki's cell.

Satsuki shot her eyes to him after her gaze was locked in fascination on Saiki trying to tune the radio and find a proper station for the god knows what time.

Seishiro beamed at her, his eyes as sharp and cruel as they could be, and pointed towards the warden completely engulfed by the radio mission. Seishiro walked up to the door of his cell with its mail slot and food drawer and kneeled by it, facing the little sofa standing closest to it.

He glued his lips to the slot and emitted a long wailing whistle.

Saiki jerked his back straight and cast frantic, near paranoid looks about him.

Yatouji-san was staring at him as she had been since the beginning of his shift. Sakurazuka-san was rummaging under his sofa. Nothing could have made that sound, could it? Saiki glared at his radio and dealt it a good slap.

Once again Seishiro whistled and once again it disturbed Saiki so much that he began leaping to his feet in search of the whistle's source.

Seishiro rose from the floor and walked to the kitchen, straightening his jacket and tie casually.

Satsuki found she was smiling happily. She wanted to be like Seishiro; she wanted to be so flowing and elegant, she wanted to be able to know exactly what to do to torment people, she wanted to have the confidence to allow herself to do things like that, she wanted to be aloof enough to do it.

Has she got what it takes to be like Seishiro? Will she be able to physically hurt someone when the need arises?

The vision of Private Kishuu and the cables appeared before her eyes again. Yes, she wanted to see it happen, she wanted to make it reality, she wanted to be it worse than what she first imagined. She can do it and she will as soon as she'll be able to.

Fifteen minutes a week might not make it happen quickly but she's got time. She's got all the time in the world here in prison, has she not?

And so, without ever noticing it, Satsuki lost the last piece of mercy and love she had towards humanity.

* * *

Prison life became ever so easier now. Even the air felt lighter. 

Whatever Satsuki looked at was empty and meaningless, everything was crushable, breakable, vulnerable. All she had to do was to reach out and snap it between her fingers because she had the power to do it and the lack of fear of its consequences.

The older, more powerful prisoners didn't frighten her, the wardens didn't frighten her, the ward commander didn't frighten her, boredom didn't frighten her. All she had to do when distress arose was to calm down and think about those fifteen minutes when she'll make another step towards sweet bloody revenge and her mind stopped buzzing painful complaints.

Satsuki was so relieved she felt like crying. She didn't. She found that proper emotions were subsiding in her; other than the cool smooth calm of her resolutions she was becoming very much emotionless.

The biggest proof of that came when she was watching a drama television show she loved back in her free days and suddenly found that she didn't care about the latest plot twist nor of her favorite characters' fate.

She used to skip classes to watch that show, she used to leave her computer to watch it, she used to close her eyes and imagine she was several of the characters; she even tried writing a fan story about it.

Look at her now, walking out of the television room so casually; she really lost interest in such things.

When she was finally attacked by the Night Owls she had absolutely no problem grabbing the nearest chair and swinging it at the closest gang member. Satsuki found her heart skipped a beat happily as she heard the woman's arm bone snap.

No, don't smile about your joy; that's not how a true cold-blooded psycho behaves, that's not how Sakurazuka-san would have done it.

Three more inmates neared her, wielding shivs at her, swearing so foully it took Satsuki aback a bit.

Three angry women charging you, they want to grab you, what will you do? Its simple isn't it:

Duck now. Charge at her legs. Sink your teeth in that shin. Scratch that thigh as hard as you can. Move away quickly before she stabs you. Charge headfirst at that woman, aim to the belly, push her against the wall. Move away before her friend yanks you away. Too late, squirm out of her grip. Kick your legs up. Try hitting her back. Try harder. Harder! There's no such thing as not being able to hit back. Fight them damn it!

Well, true coldhearted psychopaths don't care even when they're raped. Electric cables, ripping into that bitch, tearing her from the inside, giving her a good high voltage blow, think of that.

* * *

- - - - - - - - - - - 

**_Ichan-san: _**Yo.

**_Jailbird: _**Hello who are you?

**_Ichan-san: _**Wanna have sex?

**_Jailbird: _**That is technically impossible.

**_Ichan-san: _**What are you wearing?

**_Jailbird: _**A tight red dress. It's got a really deep neckline…

**_Ichan-san: _**Really? How big are they?

**_Jailbird: _**D cup, 85.

**_Ichan-san: _**Oh yeah…

**_Jailbird: _**I'm crawling on all fours towards you.

**_Ichan-san: _**I'm opening my pants zipper…

**_Jailbird: _**I leap at you and sink my teeth in your neck.

**_Ichan-san: _**Into that kind of stuff eh? Don't leave a mark; I'm a married man…

**_Jailbird: _**I rip your main artery open and you start bleeding all over the place.

**_Ichan-san: _**No, I don't like that; let's go back to when you were crawling on all fours towards me…

**_Jailbird: _**And while you gag I grab your left arm. I snap it in half. I grab your right arm and do the same. Then I break your legs, one after another.

**_Ichan-san: _**Bitch! _the user appears to have logged out and is unavailable at the moment_

- - - - - - - -

"Please leave the computer station, Yatouji-san."

Satsuki turned around to face corporal Monou, her warden for that day's session. She beamed the sweetest smile she could, cocking her head sideways a bit, "Of course. Thank you for your patience. I apologise for taking up your time and bothering you with watching over me."

Monou Saya, a thin short frail looking woman with a mane of wavy hay coloured hair, gawked at Satsuki for a moment before breaking out with a delightful smile. She placed a soft palm on Satsuki's shoulder and escorted her out of the library chatting merrily about how she's glad Yatouji-san's in a good mood.

Satsuki ignored the cheerful woman and walked up to her cell, eyeing whatever Night Owls she saw on her way suspiciously, and crushed on her bed.

The walls around her were transparent which made the bored lazing out in bed session which took up most of her time a lot more interesting.

This time Satsuki chose to look at her neighbour, Kanoe, who had just woken up and was preparing for the new day.

When entering Sharonza, every inmate is allowed five items of each dressing article.

Kanoe pushed that law to the limit; she brought five of everything she could come up with:

She brought five dresses, five vests, five shirts, five pants, five skirts, five hair ribbons and five hairclips, five earrings, five necklaces, five bracelets, five pairs of shoes, five different patterned pantyhose, five rings, five watches, five coats, five scarves, five pins, five different pairs of cufflinks, five gloves, five belts and five hats.

There were no laws regarding personal items such as underwear, braziers and socks, which was immediately stretched by Kanoe in the same fashion as with the clothing items. She had a shirt made of black transparent fabric and a matching vest both of which she brought to life by wearing her ten different bras, each with its own daring design and color scheme.

There were no laws for women's makeup and so Kanoe, who wished to bring as much of her mask of power with her into captivity, brought a whole suitcase of cosmetics.

Kanoe now stood before the mirror in her room and matched the items for today's outfit. She was so engulfed by which earrings to match with which set of shoes, how to fashion her hair and how deep to pull her shirt to enlarge the cleavage, which shade to use for her eyelids and which to the arch defining her eyeball, she didn't notice Satsuki's sleepy stare.

When she did, Kanoe stared back at Satsuki as if she noted the girl's existence only now after three months of living right by her.

Kanoe blinked a little, her jet orbs blank save for a touch of surprise, and then smiled a little. She nodded gently, reaching a small resolution within herself. Then she sent her neighbor an airborne glossy dark red kiss, batted velvet black dyed eyelashes in a wink and left her cell with a flutter of the light green satin scarf she fastened to her neck above the provocative neckline of the tight fitting brown velvet miniskirt dress she wore.

Visualizing the man she spoke with today and what she planned for him, Satsuki closed her eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

"Hello there, hot stuff!" 

"Nice scarf, babe."

"I much prefer what's under that scarf. Come here, girl."

Kanoe flashed a toothy grin at the three black clad women sprawled on the little lawn covered hill at Sharonza's sixth ward inmates stroll court. She straightened her back, swinging her hips extravagantly.

"Oh yeah, baby, move that body!"

"Why won't you swing those hips towards us, girlie-girl?"

Kanoe walked on, turning now towards the high wall at the east of the yard; the wall belonging to the old ward of Sharonza.

The old ward, formerly reserved for policemen gone afoul, emptied once the women's ward was opened at it's feet, was now opened again to contain a small group of five male prisoners who manned the Pochi Project. Amongst these five men was Kigai Yuuto to whom Kanoe's extravagant appearance was aimed.

The noise the Night Owls produced acted as a sign for Yuuto to pop his hand out the window of his cell and communicate with his imprisoned partner and lover.

The hand, popping out of a sleeve of the brightest violet fabric from which a white sleeve of an elegant shirt with a glittering diamond cufflink, popped out about five minutes after the sign was given.

It waved a folded page rapidly before flinging it downwards as quickly as Yuuto could so that no warden, not in his ward and not in Kanoe's, could note the exchange.

Kanoe tensed, like a beast of prey preparing to pounce its victim, and followed the paper's lazy decent. She was always nervous during these critical few seconds; will it be noted? Will she be seen? Will Yuuto be caught? And if so, what will become of their relationship?

The folded paper's 'v' shaped structure caught on the wind like a tiny parachute and made its decent slower. It swung from left to right, making Kanoe shift her weight from one high heeled shoe to the other, trying to decide where to dash to and catch the paper and stuff it into her bra quickly before anyone would notice.

A Night Owl rose to her feet silently behind the giddy woman, stalking up to her while keeping her eye on the paper.

Kanoe noted this; the Night Owl was foolish enough to not note the sun cast her approaching shadow on the ground before her. She clenched her fists to assure herself of the sharpness of her nails; she might chip one, but when it comes to communication with Yuuto she will sacrifice everything.

The paper landed, as if in defiance, closest to the Night Owl who immediately shot forward and snatched it off the ground.

"What's this, sweet cheeks? A letter from your imprisoned lover-man?"

Kanoe's eyes blazed as she pierced the Night Owl's mocking ones with her glare, "Give that to me, now."

The black clad woman shifted her weight to one leg and cocked her head sideways, twirling the paper between her fingers teasingly. Her smile was more like a snarl, her gold-capped fangs were menacing, "Why, sugar plums, what're you gonna do for it?" she flickered her tongue out meaningfully.

"What I'll do for it?" Kanoe's smile sweetened into seduction. She was swinging her hips again as she walked towards the gangster, hands slowly waving by her thighs.

She walked all the way up to the other woman, close enough to feel the other's breath on her face. "What I'll do for this?" she purred, eyes like honey, seductive lips.

She sent her fingers into the Owl's black hair, running her palm up and down the side of her face. "What I'll do…hmmm….I'll do this." She smirked and, after digging her fingers in the black hairs again near the other woman's temple, she dug her nails into the slightly tanned skin and carved four lines from hairline to jaw.

The Night Owl hissed and reeled covering her wounds instinctively. Kanoe used the shock of distraction to snatch the paper from her enemy's fingers.

She turned on her heels to leave before the rest of the gang would be there for retribution when she changed her mind.

She sent her palm to the woman again, grabbing the hair above the scratches and yanking the face close to hers again.

"Dare to mess with me again, I want to see you try, bitch." She flickered her tongue out the same way as her opponent did a moment ago, and only then did she turn to flee from the scene.

In her haste, she forgot to hide the precious paper.

" Kazahaya-san, what was that right now?" Arashi placed herself between Kanoe and the entrance to the ward itself.

Kanoe's eyes blazed for a moment, her fingers clutching the folded paper so hard it wrinkled it. "It's nothing, Private Kishuu-san, nothing at all."

Captain Karen stopped strolling the ward behind the private and observed the interaction.

"Were they picking a fight with you, the Night Owls?" the warden's eyes were not demanding or accusing; they were searching, toned with subdued worry.

Kanoe blinked a little in shock, trying to keep herself from smiling in relief. "A-ah, yes, they were. They're always throwing these horrid remarks at me and, well, I've had enough."

The worry in Arashi's eyes vaporized like fog clearing from mountains, now they were only searching, "So, you attacked them?"

Kanoe mouthed a bit, cold prickles of alarm dancing down her spine. "A-ah….u-um….well…"

"What's this in your hand? I saw something falling from the air and caught by that Night Owl. What is it?"

Kanoe stepped backwards. The sun outside shone down on her back, its heat contradicting the cold shivers of dread in the woman. Her communication with Yuuto; so far it's been mostly affirmation of how they're still together, still in love, still partners in everything life brings them; it will be discovered now.

The Private opened her palm, hanging it between her and the prisoner demandingly, "Give it to me please, Kazahaya-san, now."

Kanoe's hand shook, her fingers refusing to let the paper go as she forced herself to bring her palm to the same level as Arashi's. "I-it's nothing, Private Kishuu-san, n-nothing at all….j-just something s-silly…."

How old is this kid, anyway? She must be at least ten years her junior, and why the hell is she afraid of her like this! Because one of them wears a warden uniform and the other isn't? This world is fucked beyond what she thought. Six months ago Kanoe could have easily brainwashed this girl into being one of her ladies.

Kanoe was shaken out of her thoughts when she felt the paper yanked from her grip. Her vision seemed to be swaying; Arashi remained where she was, only the prison behind her moved in a large circle.

Arashi's nimble slim fingers unfolded the page gingerly, her large dark grey eyes moving to observe the unfolding mystery like it was an extremely complicated mission to perform.

The paper contained a single picture; a symbol resembling a few kanji ideograms combined. No text, no messages, just the symbol.

Arashi frowned a little. Kanoe blinked at the symbol and exhaled after holding her breath for far too long.

"What is this, Kazahaya-san?" Arashi's voice tore through the noise Kanoe's racing thoughts caused inside her head.

She whipped her eyes to the Private's, "U-uh…what?" stop stammering, idiot, she's only some kid in uniform!

Arashi brought the symbol closer to Kanoe's sight (Kanoe's naturally taller than Arashi and is even taller due to her shoes, so Arashi turned the paper a bit higher to make the woman see it clearly), "What is this?"

"This…." Kanoe reached out for the note, seeing the slight confusion her warden was feeling made it possible to claim the paper for herself.

She folded the paper and beamed a short embarrassed smile at the young woman, "This is something I doodled….I was always interested in the arts of Kanji a-and was always interested in creating my own letter s-so I doodled this a-and the Night Owl, you see, she snatched it from me and w-was throwing it up and down to tease me, s-so I had to, well, make her stop…" she bowed deeply, moving too fast due to her agitated mood, "I apologize for my violent reaction, but this hobby of mine is very private and I panicked from their teasing. Please forgive me for disrupting the peaceful atmosphere of our ward, Private Kishuu-san."

Arashi's reaction was anything but what Kanoe expected. She thought, no, was absolutely sure, the warden would dismiss it and uncover the note's true identity.

Instead Arashi allowed a tiny sweet smile to curve the corners of her lips. Her eyes warmed up a bit as well.

"Kanji writing, it is a very noble subject to study, the shapes of some idioms and their sources was always a subject I enjoyed learning. I'm glad you found yourself a harmless, educating pastime activity, Kazahaya-san. Please, don't let me get in the way of your research. And remember to inform us first the next time the Night Owls, or anyone else, trouble you, those are the procedures."

And with a small nod, the private turned away from Kanoe and walked out to the yard to calm the enraged Night Owls.

Karen walked away contently.

Kanoe allowed herself to breath normally again.

* * *

Kanoe's head was still spinning a bit as she walked to the library to claim a computer cubical. 

She plopped into the chair, hit the keys to surf the chat room she and Yuuto shared, with such wrath she did chip a nail.

Whenever one of them was abroad on business, Kanoe and Yuuto would use the chat room to discuss the matters of their business and update each other on their doings.

Yuuto, the brothel's 'recruiter', would tell Kanoe of the lovely young girls he seduced and persuaded into joining him on a trip to exotic Japan and Kanoe would report on the existing girls' behavior and of the brothel's business.

Their girls would often 'burn out' during their job, some running away, some behaving badly enough to be rid of and some simply growing too old to be of the customers' interests and so new faces were always needed. The customers of the brothel would always enjoy the young east European or African beauties Yuuto managed to sweet-talk into the business and so, the more the brothel's business went well the more Yuuto spent abroad.

These chat room exchanges became Kanoe and Yuuto's main evidence of the crimes they committed as the police's computer experts traced their many chats and used the text there against them.

With them both in prison no one was interested in these chats anymore and once again Kanoe and Yuuto would communicate in their very own chat room at the Home and Gardening of North America forum.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

**NightMistress: **What on earth is that supposed to mean!

**PinkCupid: **Ah ha ha, so sorry about that, but I didn't have much time to write anything and explain it. Libido wetted his bed blanket again and I had to tend to that, so sorry my dear.

**NightMistress: **Actually, it was very fortunate that you didn't write anything because a snot-nosed warden here took it from me and looked at it.

**PinkCupid: **Oh my, I hope all is well with my Kano-cake's nerves.

**NightMistress: **I was very much close to a panic attack, but I was saved in the last minute because you didn't write anything and I told this big story about it being some new form of kanji I'm trying to develop.

**PinkCupid: **And she bought it?

**NightMistress: **Think for yourself, stupid man, I'm here to chat with you, am I not?

**PinkCupid: **Ah, please forgive my testosterone-induced inferiority, my dear Night Mistress.

**NightMistress: **So…

**PinkCupid:** So what, my lovely?

**NightMistress:** God damn it, don't play stupid with me, Yuuto!

**PinkCupid:** But I'm honestly clueless as to what you're talking about, precious.

**NightMistress:** Goodness, you _are_ blond, aren't you?

**PinkCupid: >.  
**

**NightMistress:** What is that symbol, Yuuto?

**PinkCupid:** It's a wall-breaking spell. You draw it on a wall using freshly drawn blood and it breaks the wall.

**NightMistress:** I think Libido chewed on your brain during the night instead of his chewy toys.

**PinkCupid:** I'm serious, Kano-cakes. Have you heard of the black wizard in the basement ward?

**NightMistress:** The psycho killer? What about him?

**PinkCupid:** He told us about this spell and you know the police themselves admitted the guy used magic to kill all his victims.

**NightMistress:** Holy shit…..you're not kidding are you? You mean this is a genuine spell? A real spell? Will it really break walls?

**PinkCupid:** I wrote it on a wall in my room during the night and when I woke up in the morning there was a crack around the symbol that was definitely not there before.

**NightMistress:** Oh mygod…oh my fod….So whatdo I do with it anyway? How do I use it? What do I use it obn?1 goddanit Yuuto, what the hell….how did he give it to you!

**PinkCupid:** Calm down sweetie, take deep breaths and don't hyperventilate. The psycho didn't give it to me, he gave it to Firebomb Fuma, have you heard of him? Never mind. This Monou Fuma was doing all sorts of evil stuff and I totally read on him that if there's one person in my ward that's going to try and break out of here it's him so just before I left to join Libido in the Pochi project I offered my help. Last evening I got mail from him with this note, telling me what to do with it. Are you calm now? Read what I just wrote again and tell me when you understand what I said completely.

**NightMistress:** I see. I'm calmer now….Shit, my hands were really shaking before. I need my calming medications…

**PinkCupid:** Kano-cakes, you can't do this on your own. You can't do your share of the breakage alone. Find a partner, okay honey? Find a partner.

**NightMistress:**_My_ part of the breakage? What do you mean 'my part'? wait…shit, what's this! Hey….Yuuto….can you see me?

_You have been logged out, please login again._

- - - - - - - - - - -

"What the hell!" Kanoe slammed the computer monitor angrily, blinking at flickering chat room window.

The browser's chat room window was shut down.

Instead, a new one, a Notepad window, opened. Kanoe did not touch the keyboard and yet the following message appeared on the window's background:

_**"Satsuki?"**_

Kanoe emitted an animalistic shriek, covering her mouth immediately.

The flash of epiphany hit her as quickly as her fear of the computer's strange behavior did.

Her fingers trembling almost beyond proper functioning, Kanoe answered the machine.

_"You want Satsuki-chan/ She;s not here at the moment, I;m very sorry." _

The little lights on the computer itself flickered, showing it was 'thinking'.

_**"Where is Satsuki?"**_

_"She;s nothere I'm sorry but I'll tell her you whr looking for her okay? " _

This time the computer actually vibrated, as if angered. Then it stopped and the alien window shut down.

Kanoe found herself leaping away from the computer and running away to her cell without control over her body. Then she stopped. She was standing at the entrance to her cell; to her left was Satsuki's cell.

The girl was sprawled on her bed, sleeping like she was dead, her renewed habit since the Night Owls began pestering her.

Will she tell Satsuki about the computer now? Nah, she must find the right time to do it, the right time to win Satsuki's trust and bind the both of them together.

She has her magic symbol and Satsuki has herself a new computer slave. Surely the escape plot will only become greater and more glorious if the Sharonza's computer system will come crashing down as well as its walls. But for that to happen a good, stable partnership must be constructed.

* * *

Yuuto's words might have been the sweetest poison for the adolescent girls who came across him, but compared to Kanoe's they were nothing but faint whispers. 

Kanoe knew how to talk to the girls in a way that drove invisible nails into their palms and feet, grounding them until only a few were able to shake the spells off and flee the trap woven around them.

Kanoe knew how to combine horrid threats and intoxicating promises in the same sentence, she knew how to turn a girl's head around and blind her. She knew how to calm the most rebellious of girls if only to convince them to meet one more client.

She knew how to force the girls to stay despite their physical and mental pain; she even knew how to keep the girls' parents at bay.

For Kanoe, Satsuki was just another young innocent girl to enslave with sweet verbal chains.

The words themselves were only half of Kanoe's power; the other half was the timing in which to say these words.

The timing to say those words to Satsuki was approaching as Kanoe sat at a table at the very center of the ward's inner court, from which she could observe the whole ward to see who goes where to do what.

Kanoe saw Satsuki drag her feet from her cell; head dizzy with too much sleep and mind-numbing boredom, to the shower room.

Kanoe saw five Night Owls exchange looks between them and get up to enter the shower rooms after the girl.

Kanoe rose to her feet and slowly began walking towards the shower rooms, preparing a small speech for the girl.

"Taking a bath are we?" The head gangster surprised Satsuki just as she removed her shirt.

Satsuki turned around, scanning the women blocking her only escape routes systematically. There were two exits to the shower, both blocked by two Night Owls standing with their arms folded on their black covered chests. The leader of the women was advancing towards Satsuki.

Water. Shower head above you. Lamp dangling loosely from the roof after some idiot tried to hang herself here of all places some years ago and some idiot at the ward management forgetting to get it fixed.

Think clearly Satsuki and you'll be able to fight them back.

The young woman leaped backwards, landing on the plastic bench at the wall by the shower head and tap.

The Owl leader took a large step backwards, exposing bright white teeth in a wolfish snarl, "You're backing up against the wall, sweetheart, might as well give up and give in to us. If you be good enough we might let you join us one day."

Satsuki's hand snaked to the shower head, the other giving the cold water tap a large swing. The water came in a powerful arch, drenching the leader. Satsuki increased the flow and shook the tube-shaped plastic object in her hand until the four other women were drenched as well.

The water was freezing and her action came as a surprise to her attackers, so it took the Night Owls a few moments to recover and aim at her again.

Satsuki used these precious minutes to cover the smooth tiled floor with as much water as she could.

While one hand was busy with the watering task, Satsuki reached out her dry hand to her shirt at her feet on the bench and wrapped it around her hand.

Kanoe saw this as she walked to the shower room's left entrance and realized that if there's a time to intervene and stop what her girl's doing it's now or never.

Satsuki tore the lamp out of its socket and was ripping the electric chord out of the wall with such violence that she found a long loose end buzzing in her hand.

She was going to electrocute her attackers and she just might kill them in the process. The confinement time she'll do will dwarf in comparison to the extension of her imprisonment time as punishment. She will be taken away from Kanoe, taken to a different part of the ward where they keep the true psychopaths and maniacs and Kanoe will never see her again.

She must act and she must act _now_.

"DON'T DO IT, GIRL!" Kanoe flung herself on the two gangsters before her, grabbing a handful of each the women's hairs, drawing the heads sideways and then to the other direction, knocking the two skulls together.

With an almost operatic sigh of woe, the two women crumbled to the ground.

Satsuki was still yanking on the wire, her eyes afire with wrath, tears streaming down her cheeks. She was not in the perfect mental calm as she thought she was; she was avenging for all the things the Owls made her do and she was very much shaken by her emotions even if she did not recognize it.

Meanwhile, the leader of the gangsters was too intimidated by the crazed girl and the obvious threat she was waving at her to note Kanoe as the woman charged at her two remaining fellows.

Kanoe ripped her shoes off, risking electrocution by Satsuki, might the girl yank the wire low enough, and sent a spinning kick to the back of one gangster's knees, punching the second's chest.

With the slippery wet floor and the powerful swings, the women came flying backwards and landing on the hard surface on their backs, knocked into shock and neutralized.

Satsuki was still holding the wire though her eyes were not so crazed now; they were following Kanoe's moves, wide, clear and innocently surprised.

The Night Owl leader spun around and charged at Kanoe who swung a sharp-nailed slap at her face and carved another set of four lines onto a gangster's face.

"Back off witch, she's mine."

Noting her disarmed followers, the leader backed away. She kept her blazing eyes on Kanoe despite the flood from the scratch on her forehead leaking into her eyes. With a shrilling whistle she called her women to follow her out of the room.

The first part of Kanoe's mission went as planned, now to the second half.

She turned around to Satsuki with the calmest, most concerned expression she could pull. "Are you alright, Yatouji-san?"

Satsuki's wire-grabbing hand was shaking; her shower head hand was shaking a little less. Her face was red and her eyes were again crazed, though the tears had stopped flowing since Kanoe first charged at her offenders.

"Yours am I?" she hissed. During her defense she unconsciously bit her lower lip until she opened a nasty cut in it, her wounded lower lip now trembled, spraying her chin with small dark red dots.

"I just said it to get them off your back. Besides, you got to have someone to look after you in this hellhole."

"I can take care of myself pretty damn well, thank you." Satsuki kept herself from screaming. She was still clutching the wire and the dripping shower head.

Kanoe stepped forwards, into the biggest pool of water, and turned the tap shut. She made her moves as smooth and calm as she could so as not to arouse the girl's agitated nerves into something they'll both regret.

"By electrocuting five people to death after all they've done is come to talk to you? Seems more like you're trying to add a death sentence to your punishment."

"_They were not here to talk to me!_" Satsuki choked on her words as she noted the desperate, hoarse tone they came out in. She was not in perfect self control, she was not a cold blooded killer, she was not like Sakurazuka-san.

Grabbing the shirt wrapped hand softly, Kanoe pried Satsuki's fingers off the wire and brought the hand gently down by the girl's side, making careful note not to touch her body while she's at it, "That's what the wardens would have seen. They would look at the facts and listen to evidence from other prisoners and decide that you attacked them."

"I want them dead, not just beaten."

"They will die, and by your hands, but all in due time." Kanoe now sharpened her eyes from sweet to malicious, her dark red smile holding a secret.

"You will use your charmed computer to kill them, won't you? You'll persuade it to electrocute them when they're sitting to it and then no one will think it's your fault. That's what you were planning, wasn't it?"

Satsuki blinked at Kanoe, letting the shower head escape her grip.

"How clever you are, Yatouji-san, how absolutely ingenious in your sadistic little games. I like that; a good, cold hearted killer like yourself is just what I like at my side."

Satsuki, who climbed off the bench and involuntarily drew towards Kanoe now backed away suddenly. "By your side! You mean like the Night Owls wanted me 'by their side'!"

Damn that girl's slippery, ah, but she still has a chance to twist this around.

Kanoe did not lose her cool. She shrugged, giving her head a small nonchalant shake while running her fingers calmly through her black hairs. "Nah, I'm not into those kind of kinks. I just like people who can act their plans with no thoughts of anyone else. I like smart, smooth people like that because I am like that, which is why I'm here and not out there in the free world."

She was losing Satsuki, the girl didn't want to hear about her, she didn't care about partnerships. Very well, if she doesn't want to know she's a partner in something, Kanoe'll find a way to team up with her without Satsuki's knowing.

But first, a bit of flattery; the verbal lubricator.

"You know who you remind me of? That black wizard at the basement ward."

Satsuki's eyes twitched involuntarily, widening. Bingo.

"You've heard of him?"

"Ah yes, my lover in the 3rd ward spent some confinement time in the cage by his side, told me of what a remarkable man he is. Both I and Yuuto, my lover, are very fond of people like you and Sakurazuka-san."

Satsuki was immobilized, paralyzed and enchanted by Kanoe's words. The older woman neared her now with silent, smooth steps on the wet floor.

Kanoe reached out and cupped Satsuki's chin, lifting it up a bit. Satsuki backed up against the wall, but her body language did not give a single sign of alarm or distress; on the contrary, she was too spellbound to note she was trapped.

"My lover received a small note from dear Sakurazuka-san. It's a symbol, a spell. You write it on a wall with freshly drawn blood," say 'freshly drawn blood' in the right hoarse lustful tone and the girl's yours, "and the wall comes crumbling down. Boom! Like that."

Satsuki's jaw came loose, opening her mouth a bit. Actually, she had really sensuous lips, especially now that the lower lip was swollen and red from the cut.

"I'm thinking, you draw the blood and I draw the symbol, or you'll do both, whatever you wish my dear. I'm here to help the likes of you, let's call it my kink. And while my lover and Sakurazuka-san bring their own wards' walls down, your beloved computer brings the whole system down."

She drew a little away from Satsuki, gathering momentum, "Imagine the panic, the screams, the utter complete delicious chaos. Why, just thinking about it sends shivers all around my body." Kanoe shook her shoulder symbolically a bit, throwing her head back a little and spreading the most demonic smile she could on her lips.

"It would be…" came Satsuki's hushed voice finally, "It would be…."

Kanoe drew back towards the girl, placing her free hand on the wall to Satsuki's side to completely block the girl's escape. "It would be….perfect…." she dipped her head forward into the other girl's.

Dark red lipstick mixed with dark red blood.

* * *

- - - - - - - - - - - - 

_**"Satsuki"**_

_"I am here, 3D45893CMA"_

_**"Welcome back Satsuki"**_

- - - - - - - - - -

**Jailbird: **Hello Yuuto.

**PinkCupid: **Kano-cakes, you've changed your nickname. I like it p

**Jailbird: **I am not your lover.

**PinkCupid: **Who are you? Identify yourself immediately.

**Jailbird: **Calm yourself down Yuuto. I am Yatouji Satsuki of the 6th Ward, where Kanoe-cakes lives.

**PinkCupid: **What do you want?

**Jailbird: **I'm in on the plan.

**PinkCupid: **Kanoe told you about it? WTF!

**Jailbird: **I repeat myself; Calm yourself down.

**PinkCupid: **Wait a minute, I heard about a Yatouji Satsuki, the computer girl. You're not her, tell me which warden you are, come on, out with it.

**Jailbird: **I'm not Yatouji Satsuki? Are you sure?

**PinkCupid: **Hey now, what's this?

**Jailbird: **I am not Yatouji Satsuki?

**PinkCupid: **Hey, our club's site is still active, cool! I thought the pigs brought it down.

**Jailbird: **They did. I brought it up again.

**PinkCupid: **You did! How?

**JailBird: **I want to hear you say it.

**PinkCupid: **o Kinky.

**Jailbird: **Say it.

**PinkCupid: **You are Yatouji Satsuki.

**Jailbird: **Cool?

**PinkCupid: **8D Cool.

**Jailbird: **About Sakurazuka-san's spell, tell me more about it.

**PinkCupid: **With the great Yatouji Satsuki's hand in the internet, I guess I can tell you about it. Ha ha ha.

**Jailbird: **I'm running out of time here. Email me the details, every detail.

**PinkCupid: **Yes ma'am.

**Jailbird: **Goodbye.

**PinkCupid: **Bye, Libido sends hugs.

- - - - - - - -

The weekly fifteen minutes were quite enough for Yatouji Satsuki.

* * *

(tbc) 

**N.A: **Muhahahahaha, buhahahaha!


End file.
